Legislatures at the Western Bahr el Ghazal State Assembly have summoned Wau Town Mayor and the State Finance Minister over tax expenditure.
Over the weekend, the MPs directed Mayor Saed Paulino Uku and Minister Josephine Mario Ali to explain how the state collected taxes and civil servants’ salaries were spent.
Arun Abaker Arun, Chairperson of the assembly’s Standing Specialized Committee for Economy, Finance, and Investment demanded clear explanations how the municipality daily collections from the traders including the income taxes were utilized.
They further asked Minister Mario to explain how grants from the National Government in Juba were being used in the state.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday, Abaker said the summons were issued after further deliberations by his committee.
Abaker explained that the mayor had been instructed to present the municipality’s budget to the Finance Committee in the state assembly but that was not honored despite huge amounts the municipality has been collecting.
“The reason for the summons was because between 2023 and 2024, Western Bahr el Ghazal State experienced financial constraints, especially the grant coming from the Central Government in Juba. The amount has been cushioning the state on claims the state revenue is less” he said.
Abaker said the state is only second to Juba in terms of revenue collections.
He pointed out that it was a pity that the state does not have enough money to meet its financial obligations yet a lot of money is being collected from the traders in the market.
“Every day, you can see that the town administrators and police are exhorting money from the traders and traders are crying that the municipality is collecting a lot of money from them,” Abaker said.
He said the mayor has also been summoned to explain why the municipality was for more than a year without establishing a fix operation budget.
“This is a very big issue because you cannot keeps collecting money without an establish operational budget,” Abaker explained.
He said that the Mayor has earlier indicated that 70 percent of revenue collections was allocated for security operations and the rest to garbage collection.
Abaker said Minister Mario was summoned to explain the state’s expenses for the last six months.
However, Abaker said the committee rejected the report provided by the minister, deeming it incomplete, and granted the minister 12 days to return with a comprehensive report for the last six months.
“For minister of finance, it is clear by law that she should present a financial report after every three months. This include the state income and central government grants,” he said.
“We summoned the minister of finance to give us a report of the last six months, but the minister appeared on time but her report was incomplete so we gave her 12 days to return to the assembly with a full and clear report,” Abaker clarified.
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