Transport Minister Madut Biar has expressed his intention to shift the responsibility of car licensing from the Directorate of Traffic under the Ministry of Interior to his ministry.
Speaking at the Parliament on Tuesday, Minister Biar highlighted concerns raised by the East African Community regarding the dual role of the police in both formulating policies for car licensing and enforcing those laws.
“This is the issue now that I am facing with the East African Community where South Sudan is a member. The question is now the police are the ones licensing the cars which is not the case in the East African Community,” he said.
“Even in the old Sudan, the Ministry of Transport is left only with government and diplomatic cars but the rest of the private cars are under the Ministry of Interior, especially the directorate of traffic. We have been discussing this so that they surrender those work to the Ministry of Transport,” he explained.
The national minister pointed out that the current arrangement posed challenges due to the absence of legislation to support the proposed shift. He elaborated, “We are always reaching a stalemate because the Ministry of Transport is the regulator to license all the cars, check all the documents, give the license to release the cars to the road and this is where traffic police will start their work. But now, why it is difficult is that the directorate of traffic is licensing the cars, including the logbooks and they are releasing it to the road and the same institution is actually doing the law enforcement activities and this is a conflict of interest.”
Biar emphasized that the issue needed legal resolution and pledged to bring the matter before the legislative body.
“We are going to bring this to the August House because that needs a law, East African Community members are always complaining why the police is becoming a regulator and at the same time becoming the law enforcer, so it will also need the help,” he added.
In response to the discussion, lawmaker Zakaria Matur Makuer, representing Lakes State from the ruling SPLM party, questioned the transport minister about the ongoing renewal of logbooks by the police despite a parliamentary decision to scrap the process.
Addressing the concern, the Office of the Speaker determined that the renewal of logbooks would continue to be managed by the Directorate of Traffic Police. The resolution also clarified that the new logbooks to be issued would no longer carry an expiry date.