Lawmakers in South Sudan’s Yei River State are accusing the state executive of poor financial management evident in the lack of basic service delivery to the people.
Yei assembly speaker Naphtali Hassan Gale told Radio Tamazuj that the lack of proper financial reporting and accountability promotes corruption.
“We don’t know whether the executive council have their own parliament that works underground without our notice, if so then the executive must be transparent and accountable when it comes to financial management,” he said.
The parliamentarians said the ministry of finance and the state secretariat are notorious for violating policies passed to regulate the usage of finances and financial operations of the state.
Daniel Lokoroto, head of public accounts in the assembly said they have stepped up efforts to ensure transparency and accountability.
“We demand that financial reports both in SSP and USD from different revenue sources must be submitted to the parliament. Claims on financial usage from the government secretariat must be attached to the secretariat budget costs for purposes of accountability and transparency. A uniform policy for daily expenses must be developed and the state government must ensure that it appoints trained accountants for easy monitoring and accountability,” he added.
The parliamentarians further accused the ministry of finance of misappropriating teachers’ salaries paralyzing the education sector in the state.
For her part, Lona Sadia the state minister of finance and public service downplayed claims by the lawmakers saying the harsh economic conditions facing the country affects the state’s financial situation.
“The salary of the teachers comes from the national government and teachers in the state have several months that are not paid due to delay from the national government. The ministry of finance always depends on the national ministry of finance to deliver services. I also need to say here that we are have been inheriting problems when it comes to financial management,”
The members of parliament said they have approved and passed over 8 million South Sudanese Pounds for the fiscal year 2018 / 2019 budget but are sceptical the ministry of finance and the secretariat would respect the budget expenditure lines.