A member of the Warrap Salary Payment Committee has been released from custody after authorities recovered the misplaced SSP 3,500,000.
State Information Minister William Wol Mayom told Radio Tamazuj Tuesday that the recovered amount following confusion regarding which ministry’s employees were to be paid.
It is reported that the suspect took the state Ministry of Animal Resources instead of the state Ministry of General Education.
The suspect was arrested by the National Security officers after so many phone calls from Juba by his supervisor before the money was recovered last Friday.
Last month, the National Government Minister of Finance sent a committee to pay Warrap employees a 400% salary increment that was approved on August this year by Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA).
“According to what I heard from the security services, the accused member of the task force committee was apprehended for stealing SSP 3,500,000 but in reality after investigation, it was found out that the accused member was instructed by his supervisor to take money and pay employees of the Ministry of Animal Resources but the situation became suspicious because he didn’t inform the management of the Ministry of General Education,” he explained
Minister Wol said, “The money was meant to pay employees of the state Ministry of General Education but the committee decided to take some loan from the salary to pay other ministry until the requested money is sent from Juba. The matter was investigated and the accused was released on the same day Friday to resume is work so it was not an intended theft,” he said.
He clarified that the committee is working on the deficit payments to complete paying employees of some institutions and counties which didn’t receive their remunerations.
“Some ministries and other institutions that didn’t received salaries include the Ministry of Public Services, Local Government, the Secretariat General and the state assembly. The requested money will complete the remaining unpaid salaries to the employees,” he said.
Minister Wol said the committee doesn’t pay Chapter Two, which is the operations money and the Chapter Three, which is the developmental funds to state governments.
Johnson John, Chairperson of the Payment Committee for Warrap State refuted claims of any missing money. He termed it, “mere allegations”.
On Wednesday, Johnson told Radio Tamazuj that his committee was never involved in any attempted theft but was busy paying counties.
“No, you know what happened I went myself to Tonj South County after we completed payment. We were supposed to proceed to Tonj East. We heard of some insecurity cases when we wanted to come to Kuajok but the security was still not okay but afterward, we managed to reach Wau, some vehicles were robbed after our convoy but our money was safe,” he said.
Johnson said the team arrived safely in Kuajok and no single penny was missing. “No this are allegations, no money was tempered with, just a mere allegation, you can wait until we make final financial report,” he said.
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