Eastern Equatoria State Minister for Finance and Investment Peter Lokuju Lotirimoi wants the organized forces and the national security agencies to explain the whereabouts of the money they collect at checkpoints.
Lotirimoi made the statement during the opening of a tax harmonization workshop organized by the Eastern Equatoria State Revenue Authority, with support from UNDP in Torit on Wednesday.
The workshop that gathered nearly 100 stakeholders from across the 8 counties, was held under the theme: Improving Revenue Mobilization for Effective Implementation of Public Finance Management Reforms in the State.
It aimed at improving the revenue collection amidst a declining economy.
The Minister said there were over 30 roadblocks between Juba and Nimule alone, but there was no accountability about the money collected.
He said they were also having clashes with the National Government over the collection and use of certain revenues, which each side demanded.
Eastern Equatoria Revenue Authority Commissioner Paska Hifita Oduho acknowledged that the state could not run its affairs without revenues.
He said there have never been any transfers from the National Government even as the state continued to operate with the little money raised locally.
The Eastern Equatoria State Minister for Local Government and Law Enforcement Agencies Peter Lokeng Lotole appreciated the officials who collected revenues and remitted the same for the running of the government.
“I appreciate you who were collecting revenues, especially those in the counties and the municipal councils. We know very well that there is a problem in the Republic of South Sudan, but we in Eastern Equatoria have managed to handle our state well and it continues running its affairs,” he said.
South Sudan’s transitional government is facing a tough task of reversing the economic downturn that has pushed millions of people in the country into poverty as oil production, the nation’s main revenue earner, tumbles due to internal and external factors, including flooding and conflict in neighbouring Sudan.
Starved of donor funding for lack of political will to implement the 2018 peace agreement, the government is trying to squeeze resources from a poorly managed non-oil revenue sector.