Joint donors warn S. Sudan government over corruption Article Comments (11) Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 12, 2011 (JUBA) - As preparation for South Sudan’s independence declaration in July continues to gather momentum, representatives from the joint donor team (JDT) countries have warned government over mismanagement of future development aid. Michael Elmquist, the head of the joint donor team (JDT) to South Sudan, in Juba. April 12, 2011 (ST) “Our mandate as joint donors is to provide technical and financial support to the southern government. However, we strongly feel that development aid allocated for specific purposes should not be wasted in corruption related practices,” Michael Elmquist, head of the JDT said on Tuesday. His remarks came shortly after representatives from the joint donor countries concluded their annual meeting with members from Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom attending the two-day event in Juba, the South Sudan capital. During the meeting, Elmquist said, senior representatives from the six member countries discussed their individual and joint commitments to support the development of South Sudan. The donors, according to the JDT head, openly lauded efforts by the southern government to prepare the South Sudan Development Plan (SSDP) as a basis for development cooperation over the next three years. Specifically, Sudan Tribune has learned, the team of joint donor will reportedly assist the new nation in strengthen their support for governance, anti-corruption efforts, civil society, gender, economic growth and the provision of basic services. “The meeting of the senior representatives confirmed that they want to see better coordination among all the donors under the leadership of the Government of South Sudan,” the JDT head further noted. At the two-day meeting, these senior representatives, who function as supervisors for the JDT in Juba reportedly used the occasion to review the structure of the team and agree on the recruitment of new staff. In 2010 the corruption perception index of Transparency International ranked Sudan as the seventh most corrupt country in the world. Since the Government of South Sudan was formed as part of a 2005 peace deal with Khartoum the administration has been blighted by accusations of corruption. The 2005 peace deal also granted the South the right to secede, which southern Sudanese voted for overwhelmingly in January 2011. The region’s Anti-Corruption Commission has been given a special status beyond the other public service institutions but the Chairperson has complained that the commission does not have the power to bring prosecutions. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has promised that the anti-graft commission would be granted the power to prosecute but it is yet to be brought into law. The power to prosecute continues to be in the hands of the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development. No official has ever been prosecuted for having involved in corrupt practices since the establishment of the Southern Sudan Anti-Corruption Commission in 2006. (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.
