South Sudan's government has disbursed no money for services for orphans and widows even as spending in other government sectors has soared, according to official sources.

Finance Ministry reports show that the expenditures of the War Disabled, Widows and Orphans Commission from mid-2013 to mid-2014 were significantly below budgeted levels. Key programmes were slashed and most of the remaining spending was for the Commission personnel's own salaries. The budget for the current fiscal year has also been cut. The chairman of the commission says this is the third year straight of spending cuts.

Chairman Deng Dau Deng said in an interview, “In the recent budget allocation of 2013 and 2014, our budget as a commission was cut and in fact it was in 2012-2013 the budget was [also] cut and the biggest problem initially as we know was the shutdown of the oil in Bentiu and then followed by the crisis of December 2013.”

“The budget has now maintained only essential program areas but most of activities – be it the widows' empowerment, training of war disabled and support to the orphans – those were scaled down. Yes, the budget of the commission have been greatly affected, it was now reduced just to maintaining the minimal service of the commission,” he said.

According to the Finance Ministry's financial reports on expenditures during the fiscal year 2013/2014, the Commission actually spent only 3.25 million SSP in compared to a budget of 10 million.

Financial reports at the programme and directorate level show severe spending cuts affecting services for the war orphans and war widows. The spending for the War Orphans Directorate in the 2013/2014 fiscal year was only 36,702 SSP, 6.3% of a budget of 581,873 SSP. All of this expenditure was for wages and salaries of the directorate's own personnel, and none for services.

Likewise, the War Widows Directorate was given only 20,264 SSP out of a budget of 2.9 million, meaning the widows programme was given less than one percent of its budget. All of this money was spent on wages of the directorate's own personnel, and none on services.

Only half a million SSP were budgeted by the Commission in 2013/2014 for 'social assistance benefits' and none of this was disbursed. Two million budgeted for grants and loans to businesses was also not disbursed.

Meanwhile, rather than attempting to recover this unspent budget in the current fiscal year, the Commission instead slashed 'social assistance benefits' to 0, according to the Approved Budget Book for 2014/2015.

By comparison, in the same period the Ministry of Petroleum spent 6.98 million SSP on salaries alone – more than twice the total budget provided for the Commission – while the Office of the President spent at least 696.7 million SSP or about 350% of its annual budget.

'More widows, more orphans'

Commission Chairman Deng Dau explained that the lack of money has resulted in the halt of several projects, including low-cost housing construction in Central Equatoria, Lakes and Wau, as well as training programmes. “We have nothing to do now in terms of training or distribution of items to the beneficiaries,” he said.

“We have very serious challenges: the expectations of widows, orphans and disabled are very high and the fact that we have not at our disposal any material or money has created a lot of expectation and disappointment.”

According to widows and orphans interviewed in Juba, they are not receiving any support from the Commission. Elizabeth Nyalok, age 20, lost her parents in December 2013. She says she was studying in one of the schools in Uganda and has since ended up out of school.

“I have no hope of peace to come soon in South Sudan because our leaders are just killing our people and destroy everything. ...All I need is just go back to school and continue with my education,” she said. She reiterated that nobody can now pay her school fees. She also pointed out that some of her friends ended up pregnant because of nowhere to go or work.

Meanwhile, Fidensei Charles Ladu, who represents a group of widows and orphans from the previous war with Sudan, laments that the continuing violence in South Sudan is creating more orphans and widows.

“We lost our husbands during the incident in Juba of 1992 – they were taken to the 'White House' and their whereabouts are not known until today, but we were hoping that after the signing of peace agreement everything will be new in this country and our new government will tackle our problems.”

She added, “It is unfortunate that some of these problems are still recurring, more widows are coming, and more orphans are still coming in the country.” Fidensei said the Commission for War Widows and Orphans does not cover the needs of the widows left behind. “I didn’t see such much training offered,” she pointed out.

“Our government promised to give land to the widows and free education to our children.”

Commission waiting for war to end

Overall, the current budget for the War Disabled, Widows and Orphans Commission was slashed by 29% compared to last year. The new budget is 7.1 million SSP, of which more than three million is for the salaries of the commission's own staff. However, staff positions have also being cut, with 59 staff positions budgeted in 2014/2015 compared to 76 the previous year.

Chairman Dau says that he often receives requests from widows for funding medical treatment or from orphans for school fees.

“There are some people who have got referred for medical treatment abroad and they have not got any support, there are students and pupils that have been expecting some support from the Commission in terms of school fees. We have told them the government is ready to support any individual when the situation is improved,” he said.

“Daily we normally received individual cases that are seeking for support particularly the majority of them are widows because they don’t have anything of salary in the payroll,” he said. However, he noted that wounded SPLA soldiers are maintained in the SPLA payroll.

He said they used to support some orphans by paying their school fees but no longer can do that: “Because of the crisis we are unable to get that money anymore.”

Dau slammed the current war as 'senseless' saying, “We are looking forward that the peace should return to this country because as soon as we get peace all these things will be stopped and we will return to our normal activities and it is very unfortunate now this particular war has brought in a lot of destructions, has brought in a lot of widows, war disabled they become many more than before. We say this is a senseless war and we should come to our senses to get the people of South Sudan to live in peace for the benefit of this country.”

Photo: Anti-war protesters wearing mourning clothes in Juba, September 2014 (Radio Tamazuj)

This report is part of an exclusive series, 'War Economy', which focuses on the effects of civil war on the economic situation in South Sudan. Want to comment on this story? Visit us on Facebook to join the discussion.