Lawmakers in South Sudan’s Yei River State legislative assembly have urged security agencies to present monthly financial expenditure reports to the Ministry of Local Government.

The call came as legislators reviewing the 2018/2019 budget on Monday discovered some irregularities in the millions of South Sudanese Pounds (SSP) injected into the security sector by both the national and state governments.

Speaking during deliberations on the second budget review, Daniel Lokoroto Arama, the finance and economic committee chairperson in the state legislative assembly, said they needed clear expenditure procedures to promote transparency and accountability in all government sectors.

“The wages and salaries of the organized forces operating in the state are transferred from the National Ministry of Finance through the State Ministry of Finance for purposes of accountability and administrative control. Every year, the Ministry of Local Government denies money being spent by the police, fire brigade, prison and wildlife. The government has an obligation to spend money but how the money is spent is what parliament wants,” Arama said.

The State Finance minister, Jackson Abugo Gama said his ministry transferred money to the organized forces, but no accountability report was presented to the Finance and Local Government ministries.

“This has been transferred directly to the institutions of police, wildlife, fire brigade and prisons. The expenditure of the cash is done by the institutions and they are not presenting any financial accountability to either the Ministry of Finance or Local Government,” he stressed.

For his part, the Local Government minister, Evans Sokiri Kijore said the Finance ministry has no direct control over security agencies’ budgets.

“Generally, their budgets come directly from the national government. We have no control over it. I don’t know why parliament is asking for accountability. We don’t know their budgets and this affects accountability and transparency on security sector,” he said.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, a section of junior security officers claimed they spend several months without salaries, saying what is budgeted for the security sector is allegedly spent by top officers.