South Sudan’s parliament failed to hear testimony from the central bank governor and finance minister today after the latter two failed to show up to the assembly, which suffered a power outage.
“There is no power in the parliament,” said Oliver Mori Benjamin, the chairperson of the parliament’s information committee. “People have gone to look for fuel.”
Earlier this week the parliament had summoned the central bank governor to appear today to answer questions on the country’s biting economic situation.
MP Mori, asked about the power outage and whether the parliament would resume today or not responded vaguely, “Administration has sent the staff to bring fuel… as soon as we have fuel and we have lights from that time I will be able to say something.”
The parliament today also appeared to lack quorom given that few MPs were seen in the darkened building.
MP Onyoti Adigo Nyikwec, the parliamentary minority leader, blamed the blackout of power at the parliament for delaying the business in the parliament. He complained of lack of fuel and even lack of money for the specialized committees to run their business.
He said that the finance minister and central bank governor should be held responsible for the ongoing economic crisis in the country.
“People should all the time tell the truth. Parliament is not in good condition because parliament is not run as an independent institution,” he said, blaming executive interference in the parliament.