South Sudan: Corruption, Scandals and the battle over the Nation’s Constitution
By: John Mayen Jurkuc, Juba, South Sudan MAR. 9/2011, SSN; The biggest reward for our people is the achievement of our national political independence and must be followed by providing our people with basic services, development and empowering them to own their human and material resources leading them to sustained prosperity and technological advancement. Never again will the new nation allow the plundering of South Sudanese resources by a clique of South Sudanese intelligentsia both military and civilian, using the name of SPLM and SPLA to legitimize their corrupt practices. Follow this carefully: As the new nation prepares to launch the independence proclamation on 9 July 2011, the usual corrupt elements of Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) are struggling day and night to convert this noble preparation for the big day into lucrative businesses to satisfy their ego: unlimited love for money, thus putting at risk the fundamental interests of the people. South Sudanese people must not allow these greedy thugs to undermine our national independence by stealing our resources and misusing the process of our constitutional development to divide our people. As all of you are very much aware, the leadership of Government of South Sudan (GoSS) has been convening series of meetings of South-South dialogue with the aim of uniting our people as we enter into a new era of an independent South Sudan. These meetings have resulted in the formation of South Sudan political parties Forum, chaired by the President of GoSS and Chairman of the SPLM. The leadership Forum, until now, has carried a united South Sudan together and agreed on a clear road map to independence. Among others, the Forum agreed on: approval of the name of the new country to be known as “The Republic of South Sudan”; approval of the name of the currency as “South Sudan Pound”; approval of the participation of political parties, civil society and faith-based groups and further approved the inclusion of their members into the established Technical Committee to review the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan (ICSS) and approved the current flag of GoSS as the flag for the new country. As the process of work starts, some comrades within the ruling SPLM are working day and night to undermine this noble idea. Not only that, they are busy working to exclude non-SPLM members from the process of preparation for independence of South Sudan in addition to devising ways and means to financially benefit from this process. This can be seen from what the two DENGs are doing: Design and Printing of the South Sudan Pound: In 2005, just after the signing of the CPA, the SPLM launched the so-called New Sudan Pound. The scandalous Pound turned out to be a theft strategy of some people who are now swimming in millions of dollars. Everything about the concept, the design and the printing of the infamous New Sudan Pound was supposed to be secret and in the safe hands of inner circle trusted by late Dr. John Garang. What did we get? Monkeys instead of Money! The design had no realistic correlation to the history of the long struggle of the people of Southern Sudan, but only that of Dr.John Garang and his dream, New Sudan Agenda. The paper quality and the printing was even a waste by any standard. Moreover the new Sudan Pound had one serial number for all denominations. Our poor people trusting our liberators rushed to exchange their goods and services in the blind pride of having their own money only to have bleaching papers in their pockets. The architects of the new Sudan Pound and who were trusted by Dr. Garang are the known alleged thieves and thugs. Follow carefully: These thugs have been trusted again to design and print the nation’s new currency, the South Sudan Pound. According to a whistle blower in the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), David Deng Athorbei, the GOSS minister of finance, who is pretending to be very busy these days, told the Southern Sudan taskforce 2011, which is supposed to deal with the currency issue that he is not ready to answer or reveal any information about the Design or the Printing of the South Sudan Pound. He arrogantly said in the presence of the Vice President of the Government of Southern Sudan that "he is not answerable to the Taskforce or anybody. He is only answerable to the President of the Government of Southern Sudan. The issue of the Pound is secret and confidential," he continued. What is secret and confidential about the design and Printing of such public property as money within government institutions? Why is it not secret and confidential to people like you who have been confusing our trustworthy leaders; John Garang and now Kiir Mayardit? The information we have is that the minister and the clique want to put the picture of Dr. John Garang on the Pound and then singly outsource the Contract to the same East African Company, which printed the then New Sudan Pound, in which they are shareholders. If they succeed to outwit the rest of us and print the currency, their reward would allegedly be a staggering US $4, 000,000 dollars paid to them in kick-backs. The stupid so-called leaders of the other Southern Sudan Political Parties approved the name of the South Sudan Pound without asking for details of the design and subjecting it to their approval also. What kind of leaders are these? Trusting them is the most dangerous thing to do to our nation. These people are immune to theft, scandals and they will get away with it using and misusing the name of Comrade John Garang……John Garang….John Garang, on everything, everywhere, every time. What about the rest of our heroes and heroines? I appeal to Comrade President Salva Kiir Mayardit, the Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar, Secretary General of the SPLM and other 'honorable' leaders of the SPLM to stop this scandal right away and embark on a new process to print our new currency. This must stop and let us have the design and the printing of the Pound public or else South Sudanese will reject it. Trading in Foreign Reserve/currency: Bank of South Sudan (BoSS) is a product of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). It was meant to be a public institution that would manage in collaboration with the Bank of Sudan (BoS) the economy of Southern Sudan as per the CPA. Now as the Republic of South Sudan is being prepared to be launched on 9th July 2011, the BoSS must begin to function as the central Bank of the new nation. It must now prepare to assume the traditional functions of any central Bank namely: issues the currency, regulates the monitory policy; controls the interest rates; oversee the commercial banking system within its country's borders; and more importantly, it must ensure that banks and other financial institutions do not behave recklessly or fraudulently. Look at what is happening in the Bank of South Sudan (BoSS) today. Senior top officials are trading in hard currency. A whistle blower right in the Bank has revealed to us that: President of BoSS and his Deputy are busy trading in foreign reserve, mainly the US dollar. Some of influential subordinates are now involved in the same deal. The BoSS bosses are seriously involved in FOREX BUREAUs in Juba (We challenge the security personnel to investigate more than 160 FOREX BUREAUs in Juba). You will find out that they have established one for a son-in-Law and several FOREX Bureaus for their relatives, including one owned by some immediate cousin. Worst of all the guys are now racing with time, they approve on daily basis thousands of dollars to FOREX Bureaus and to individuals for trade in the black market. As we write this document, the exchange rate of US dollar to a Sudanese pound is SDG 3.450. This is what these guys are exploiting. Instead of regulating the financial institutions, they are involved in making profits for themselves and their families. Now the hard currency is depleted from our Bank. As we become independent on 9th July 2011, our central Bank will have no or a negligible foreign currency reserve vital for the economy. Why is the GoSS President keeping these old retired gentlemen? These greedy guys must not be allowed to continue in this important lifeline of the nation. They are retired men. Chances must be given to the young emerging Bankers to exercise their talents rather than rely on these corrupt old men. Their combined age is 165 years. Nowhere in the world do you keep such senile people to run an important institution like the Central Bank. They are there to loot as much money as they would get before they are kicked out. They are not for their careers. They are there for money making. Let them go. Illegal Award of Contracts to the Wife of a Minister: Article 121 (2) of the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan, 2005, stipulates that GoSS President, the Vice President and Ministers should not use their positions to benefit themselves or persons related to them or their family members from any business emanating from the Government. One Minister concerned uses his position and that of his friends in GoSS to award contracts to his wife. The wife is an Ethiopian national, whom he married in 1980’s using blood money of the SPLA, when he was in charge of SPLA office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. As a senior member of the GoSS, this minister uses his influence at the highest level to acquire contracts illegally for his wife. The company is owned by his wife. According to whistle blower in the heart of GoSS, the company was recently awarded, in the most dubious manner, a contract worth US dollars 8 millions to furnish J1, the Juba State House. The lowest bids were ignored and her high bid was accepted because of the influence of husband-minister and the clique. This money sucking Company of the Minister managed by his Ethiopian wife and his brother in-Law is also involved in Hotel business, such as the Quality Hotel; The Juba Grand Hotel and Beijing. A network of thieves are involved, including staff of the Ministry of Finance and other key Ministries who accommodate their guests in these hotels. All these dubious contracts are causing serious tensions in the Ministry of Housing. And even before people settle down after the referendum on the Independence of Southern Sudan, this minister again and some very corrupt people in the high office of the GoSS gave the wife a contract worth US $.5 million to renovate the Office of the President of the Government of Southern Sudan. Remember this office is being renovated for the Second time. The first time, the brother of this minister, who was the Minister in the office of the President consumed more than US $.3 million on the office and the work ended up uncompleted. Now his brother comes along and gets US $.5 million to finish the unfinished refurbishment. Oh! Innocent President Kiir Mayardit what is going on in your office? If the renovation of your office costs that much, how much will it take to build Your Excellency an office as the President of Independent South Sudan brother? Important: What do these thugs, want from Southern Sudan? During the war, Dr. John Garang entrusted these men to collect money from across the world to carry out the war. These people made millions out of that and here they are again paralyzing Southern Sudan. They are millionaires and they are still very thirsty looking for more money. THEY FORGET OUR PEOPLE OF ABYEI AND GET INVOLVED IN LOOTING THE SOUTH: These Abyei boys, instead of putting their minds to solve the problem of Abyei, the children of Deng Majok and their cousins, who willingly handed-over our people of Abyei to the Arabs, are busy day and night stealing millions of dollars from Southern Sudan and buying Houses all-over the world, while talking nonsense about children of the other Southern Sudanese fighting to liberate Abyei. Why you fools? Why don’t you go yourselves or send your own children. President Kiir you must stop them from looting Southern Sudan to the bones. The people of Anti-corruption must take action and investigate these Contracts immediately, otherwise some of us will take the law into our hands because we fought to free our people’s resource from such embezzlement and now even the Arabs could set us free and others have already taken the place of the Arabs to cheat our people. No, we will never allow this to happen to Comrade President Kiir Mayardit. Battle over the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan: As you move from Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) to the Republic of South Sudan, the new nation must have a new constitution to govern it. To have this constitution it must be based on the existing legal and constitutional documents (the CPA, the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan, the Interim Constitution of Republic of Sudan) and/or best practice in as far as the South Sudan and other countries are concerned. Based on this background, the President of GoSS issued several decrees, in February and March this year, appointing members of the so called technical committee from SPLM, other Southern Political Parties and civil society, to review the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan. The first observation of this review committee is that it is not technical, it is a political committee. A handful of members are technicians. If you appoint politicians to review the constitution, you are bound to have a serious conflict, because each politician will try to insert his interest into the constitution. This is exactly what is happening in the review committee. The SPLM wants to write the constitution to the exclusion of others. For instance, the SPLM wants to carry the CPA interim institutions into the new country to the exclusion of others. A case in point is the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) and to appoint Southern members of the Khartoum based national assembly into the SSLA to form the Transitional Assembly of the new nation. This is ridiculous. Everyone knows that the infamous rigged April elections brought nearly all members of the SPLM. Are you going to have the SPLM Transitional Parliament to write the Constitution of the new republic? Imagine how that nation will look like under the SPLM constitution. We call upon the people of good will both within the SPLM and the international community to rescue this newly born nation from the tyranny of a clique within the SPLM, who have already squandered resources of South Sudan and now want to write themselves into the new constitution of infant nation to be. John Mayen Jurkuc; Juba, South Sudan Can be reached at [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
