An Army of ministers: Where'll Kiir get the money?

BY: Dr. Peter Adwok Otto

JUN 30/2010, SSN; Never before had one been bewildered about the lack of seriousness in Salva Kiir as the president of GOSS about the appointments of the states’ governments’ ministers.

Unless you are determined to drag every working southern Sudanese into the political street, there is no wisdom in appointing many young civil or military servants as junior as a major or junior lawyers into ministerial positions.

Late Luigi Adwok was quoted to have blamed Nimery for mass political appointments by saying “Nimery had awakened every sleeping person and made them ministers, he will have hard time making them go back.” Unquote.

Each and every minister has to have his/her CV debated in the parliament and approved for a position, not withstanding of course the balance be it ethnic, partisan, regional, but paramount is the qualification.

15 ministers in each of the ten southern states will make 150 ministers plus 32 in GOSS, plus advisors that will total about 150 or more constitutional post holders!!!!! Jesus Christ!

From where is Salva Kiir going to pay all this army of ministers? For the tax payer to know what a minister earns and his prerogatives, each minister will have at least two cars at his disposal, a house, two guards or more, office manager, private secretary, the running cost of a ministry.

How much is the South getting from oil money per month? Was this army of ministers budgeted for in this fiscal year? Is this intended to strike a balance of appeasing some ethnic groups? But is the balance kept?

Already the Latukas of Eastern Equatoria are complaining about having been left out in the cold or being marginalized by having not been represented. In Upper Nile many portfolios have gone to Nuer of only one area.

It is true that a corrupt practice cannot correct corruption. GOSS as a failed and corrupt government, cannot correct the situation in the states by these corrupt measures.

And where there is no rule of law, the jungle rule will not provide peace.

How can a government being given the oil money (no other sources of revenue) at the end of the month be so brave to use all the acquired funds to pay ministers?

What about education, health, water, and the poor army which had resorted to looting the citizen for survival? One recently appointed minister in GOSS just declared that 50% of southerners are living below the poverty line.

This is a strange response by president of GOSS as an austerity measure to curb expenditure. Simple arithmetic indicates that the 10 states’ ministers and 32 GOSS ministers will receive 150 x 8,500 = 1,275,000 SDG/month. 32 x10,500 = 336,000/month, running cost of ministries 185 x 5000 = 915,000 SDG/month, excluding the salaries of president, vice president of GOSS, the ten governors, advisors, commissions and the SSLA and the ten states’ parliaments.

President of GOSS on his inauguration speech posed like Obama and said that he was the president for those who voted and those who did not vote for him. This is not reflected on the ground as he seems to harbor hatred for some tribes.

There is no reason why Salva Kiir should not interfere to release the MPs of SPLM-DC languishing in their torture ghost houses, if he believes to be the president of all.

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FACTS ABOUT THE NEW CABINET OF SOUTHERN SUDAN

By Joseph Adyieng, SUDAN

JUN 22/2010, SSN; The Cabinet announced today is composed of thirty-two (32) ministers, two (2) unnamed are reserved for the National Congress Party (NCP). The thirty (30) named are the subject of the following dissection.

1. The Dinkas are eleven (11) in number and continue to dominate the key ministries (The Army, Internal Affairs, Finance, Energy, Commerce, Labor, Regional Cooperation, etc..).
2. The Nuers come at a distant second with six (6) ministers. The only significant ministry they have is Legal Affairs.
3. The two tribes (Dinka and Nuer) add up to 17 members of the Cabinet (about 57%) leaving only 13 (about 43%) to all the other tribes of South Sudan!
4. Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Greater Upper Nile regions got eleven (11) ministers each whereas Greater Equatoria region got a mere eight (8) ministers. If you add to these figures the President of GOSS and his Vice (both of whom are members of the Cabinet), the two regions will have twelve (12) each in contrast to Greater Equatoria’s only eight (8) ministers!
5. The Dinka ministers are more than those representing the whole of Greater Equatoria region, and the Nuers are almost equal in number to them.
6. Within Greater Bahr el Ghazal region, the most populous Northern Bahr el Ghazal State got only two (2) ministers whereas each of the other three States got three (3). It is to be noted that Northern Bahr el Ghazal State was not represented in the National Government announced last Monday.
7. Within Greater Equatoria region, Eastern Equatoria State got only two (2) ministers compared to three (3) each for the other two States.
8. Women got only seven (7) ministers, one of them without portfolio. This figure is short of the minimum 25% ratio stipulated under Article 20(4)(a) of the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan 2005.

These are the naked facts. It is left to the readers to draw up their own conclusions.

*NB: The fact that Mr. Pagan Amum and Dr. Anne Itto are included in the GoSS cabinet is a transparent sign that they are being exited from SPLM’s Secretariat. Is Mr. Pagan going to accept or decline the appointment in order to keep his weight in the Secretariat? Is Mr. Telar Riing coming in to replace Mr. Pagan once he accepts the Ministerial post? These are some new developments to observe keenly as SPLM events and internal conspiracies unveil themselves slowly in the coming days.

      Joseph Adyieng Lives in Sudan and is reachable at adyiengjosephaban@live.com

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