Warrap passes 2011 budget of 147 million Sudanese Pounds 2011 budget
* Article
* Comments (9)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
By Ngor Arol Garang
APRIL 2, 2011 (WAU) - Majok Bol Kur, Minister of Finance in southern
state of Warrap announced Saturday that the state parliament had
unanimously passed a 2011 budget amounting to 147.6 million Sudanese
Pounds (SDG) on Friday April 1.
The $52.5 million budget covers three main areas of capital, salaries
and operation cost for the state government. This comes days after the
Kuajok based State Legislative Assembly, saw heated debate over the
priorities and details of the new budget and deliberations on the 2010
emolument act of the government of South Sudan.
The emolument act cut salaries for ordinary members of parliament by
50 SDG a month ($17), while raising salaries for the heads of
specialized committees in the assembly from 7,000 SDG to 8,450 SDG
each.
"The new budget of Warrap State for 2011 has been passed. It was
unanimously passed yesterday on Friday 1 of April 2011, in the state
Legislative Assembly in the Afternoon. It is a twelve months budget
covering 1st of January 2011 to December 31st 2011," said minister of
finance Majok Bol Kur, in an interview with Sudan Tribune from Kuajok,
capital of Warrap State.
Kur said his ministry will adopt the toughest financial procedures to
ensure better management of the resources.
"You know Warrap state has a lot of competing priorities. Our state
started from scratch. We had no existing facilities. Our government
started from zero, so, in this budget, the ministry of finance will
adopt toughest financial procedures to ensure better management of the
resources for the benefit of our people of Warrap State," said
minister Kur.
South Sudan is still recovering from decades of civil war. In July the
South will become independent as part of a 2005 peace deal.
"All spending sectors will have to comply with financial procedures
and will now be required to give monthly reports of their expenditures
to the ministry," he said.
Minister Kur said Warrap State receives 139.8 million Sudanese Pounds
from the government of South Sudan’s Ministry of Finance and Economic
Planning as block grant and it is this budget which they added with
collections from the local revenues to bring 147.6 million Sudanese
Pounds as State budget.
"We have a lot of challenges and competing priorities which cannot be
covered by the budget we receive from the government of South Sudan’s
Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. What we receive is not
enough to cover our priorities. I do not know the criteria used to
determined allocation of funds to the state because the last census
was not accepted. We have a lot of competing priorities and we receive
only 139.8 million Sudanese Pounds from the government of South
Sudan," said minister Kur,
He further explained that some of their priorities include security,
development of physical infrastructure, provision of basic services,
which he said covers delivering better health services in the form of
recruiting and training medical personnel as well as building primary
health care units and centers.
The official also said the government needs to build more schools and
recruiting qualified teachers as way to take town people in the rural
areas through improved system of education.
"We have a lot to do to [for] our people but our budget does not cover
all these. One of our pressing priorities now is security and
integration of internally displaced persons who were repatriated to
the state from Khartoum and in other northern states. We are also
prioritizing development of physical infrastructure and food
production and [Agricultural] livelihoods (Agriculture)," he said.
The senior member of the state government said they have written a
proposal seeking financial assistances to donors because they have a
lot of developmental projects without resources.
"As I said earlier, we have a lot of competing priorities especially
developmental projects without resources to implement them; we have
now written a proposal seeking financial support to donors for these
projects," said Kur.
Ariec Mayar Ariec, a member of the South Sudan’s ruling Party, the
Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), in Warrap State Legislative
Assembly who represents geographical number 15, in Kuac South, said
that the bill on ha passed on Friday.
"Yes, the budget of 147 million Sudanese Pounds was passed yesterday.
There were no differences. It was unanimously endorsed and passed by
members of the State Legislative Assembly," said Ariec.
Ariec was one of the state MPs who sought the impeachment of the state
ministry of finance after allegations of financial scandal. However,
he subsequently failed to present relevant documents during the
parliamentary hearing on the 2010 budget evaluation report.
He said the minister in his report of the 2011 budget said will raise
3.2 million Sudanese Pounds from local revenues.
"During parliamentary discussions on this budget, the minister of
finance in his report indicated that the ministry will have raised 3.2
million Sudanese Pounds at the end of this financial year," said
Ariec.
Deng Mayom, another member of the state parliament said the budget was
passed and that this new budget will have to be properly used to the
benefit of the people of Warrap State.
"The people of Warrap State fought the war without reservations and
have shown it clearly again during referendum in which they
overwhelmingly voted for secession of south Sudan from the north. Our
people voted 99.6%. It was one of the biggest percentages because they
knew they were voting for freedom, equality, justice and democracy."
"They have voted for the fulfillment of the ideals of our struggle.
Their votes, he said, just like votes from other South Sudanese,
demonstrate that the people of south Sudan have chosen the path of
permanent peace, human dignity and nationhood."
"Therefore, as members of the SPLM in the parliament, we have to
ensure our people are provided with basic services as a response to
fulfillment of their wishes in form of service deliveries," said
Mayom.
He said the people of Warrap in particular and people of south at
large have ended one struggle and must now start another, that of
building a new nation.
"We have ended the first war both with human lives and votes. We have
started with another war on development," said Mayom.
As SPLM members in the parliament, he said, “we have accepted that we
must work together with other organs of the government to consolidate
our institutions and begin to play a major role in the area of
development as equal members of the same government. “
"We must protect this new nation to ensure that we do not end up in
the same situation which we fought against. Never again shall the
people of south Sudan be oppressed by anybody. Development is only one
of our remaining challenges and we must fight it all of us whether in
the parliament or elsewhere in the government or with private sector,"
said Mayom.
(ST)
--
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.
