South Sudan Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning as We Know It
4 min readBy Malith Alier, Perth, Australia
Wednesday, 3 April 2019 (PW) — Through the gates they come. All sorts of people! The two gates are for vehicles and people. Both gates punctured on the western part of the fortifying fence. It is one of the few gated ministries in the complex. The reasons for this are very clear to the layman.
The car gate solely belongs to the Very Important Persons (VIP). In the category of VIP are ministers, undersecretaries, Directors General and of course generals from the armed forces including SPLA, police, prisons, Wildlife and Fire Brigade.
“Please allow Gen. G to pass, give way, eh!” the security personal asked the female police door opener. “Your identity card please?” the security guy asked another visitor with searching eyes. “You’re Mr. Juba?” “Yes, visitor confirmed. “Where are you going?” “I am going to see the Director General of Finance.” “He’s not in today!” “But I was asked last week by the office manager to see him today!” “No, I told you he’s not there.” “You can go and come back next week, it is already Friday you know.”
“Another week?” Ah this is an endless mission,” Mr. Juba told himself. “They allowed in the generals but ordinary folks like me found it harder to access the big people in there.” “This is ridiculous and self-defeating endeavour!”
Mr. Capdit is the administration and Finance Officer who comes monthly to the ministry for follow up of salaries for the staff. Accessing the ministry is not a big deal for him especially, because of the nature of his assignment. He’s always armed with the necessary identity card for the purpose. However, on many occasions he’s not very lucky because the place looks like a drama club where actors talk in loud voices and nobody sits down.
“Sir, what are you coming for?” the undersecretary’s office manager asked. “I am coming for July salaries, you know” Capdit said. “Employees are in a bad shape right now, it has been five months now without pay,” he continued. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about now, the undersecretary is outside the country as we speak.” “where has he been,” asked Mr. Capdit. “He usually travels to visit family in Australia or USA.” “This time he travelled to Australia,” the officer manager confirmed. “Can I post the document to Australia for signing?” “No, it is not the right thing to do,” the office manager protested.
This is situation is not unusual. At times you find most of the offices are deserted after ten o’clock. When you see fortune-seekers moving from stair to stair, you know the officeholders are on the retreat. They hide somewhere and will only be accessed by a few select people in their retreat niches.
For the commercial companies seeking millions if not billions from the ministry, the situation is even dire for them. Documents after documents are fished out from cabinets in search for lost files. Only some creative people will get paid eventually after parting with a portion of their possible total payment – this is call ten per cent!
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If the Airplane stop in the sky, how can it be jump-started? Will the pilot call the birds to do that?
Thank you.
Man of UT.