Corruption is a personal crime not political
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By Isaiah Abraham
April 27, 2011 — The government of the people of Southern Sudan
promised people that it would not entertain corrupt practices within
government institutions. Anti-corruption Commission was established in
2006 headed by a doyen lady in the person of Dr. Paulino Riak. The
body she heads is an independent financial watch dog mandated to
investigation and make necessary follow up with relevant authorities
to arraign financial accusers in custody, and subsequently bring them
to courts. So far, the Anti-Corruption Unit had tried to fight
corruption but too little has been achieved. Six years done the line,
there have been loud outcry that the body (Anti-Corruption) is not
doing enough to go further than recording corrupt cases.
The strong lady however has started to show signs of taking the war to
criminals. All along she has been arguing that her Unit ‘isn’t a
police or a court’. But somewhere last year after Parliament passed
the Anti-Corruption Bill, there are signs of activities towards that
end. For example, an Undersecretary in the Ministry of Education was
accused, and this month the court charged her of theft and was
sentenced for ten (10) years imprisonment. Last month (March 2011),
the Auditing team from Auditor General ‘qualified’ books of accounts
for the Ministry of Labor and Public Service as; four senior staffs of
that Ministry were implicated and are reported to be behind bars in
Juba Prisons.
The dura scam of 2008 has now surface and big fish are likely going to
appear before the law on what had happened to the money at that time.
Recall the money was said to have been distributed to Ten (10) States
but the bags of dura weren’t delivered. The current minister of
Finance had already passed the bug to his predecessor and the public
is waiting with a baited breath on who are these people in the first
place that pocketed four (4) billion pounds.
I have seen this Paulino beating her chest that she will go for
nothing short of zero tolerance to corruption in the Government of the
people of Southern Sudan. Is the Anti-corruption Commission bold
enough to apply justice irrespective of any person involve or will the
body be selective of who to prosecute and who not? We will wait and
see! For now though she needs strong backing from the public and the
government. Lip service to corruption was exploited by people who were
looking for anything to discredit the people’s government.
Auditor General is a disappointment, and badly wants him to go! He
spoiled my day during his Press Conference regarding his strategies
for the next few years or months. Mr. Wondu labored for hours to tell
the public tangible challenges his department faces. Lack of qualified
auditors wasn’t a challenge. Again when did Auditing become an
institutional matter in our third world countries? True we need
internal auditor in every institution but for now external auditors
could have done much. External auditors aren’t missing; they are
everywhere. He was ‘corrupt’ with his words to the public.
But the truth of the matter is that corruption fights back. It has
already started to do so long enough as some groups have started to
cry foul that their sons and daughters are victimize. Regions are
ganging up against their own people, and tribes are cursing the
government of having targeted their sons. This is nonsense! Financial
criminals must not apply cheap politics to hide behind their people
and bubble about what others haven’t done. Crime doesn’t ascribe to be
tribe but personality; you commit it you face the law. That charged
Undersecretary didn’t send money to Uganda using Madi people but her
conscience directed her to do so. Public officials at the ministry of
Labor and Public Service didn’t inflate allowances; they did it
individually with no one form their families. If we continue to
associate crimes with our people then we missed it wide.
Let no one politicize the drive please; after all we have been
charging that the government is doing nothing, isn’t that good to
cheer them up so to eradicate the deadly vice once and for all? I
strongly feel so, and don’t see any reason of defending anyone who is
on the wrong side of the law. Some people say but why Dr. Josephine
when others have cashed away more, and the point is that the alleged
theft haven’t be proven. We all know how the law works, don’t we?
Unless evidences show it otherwise, the person is deemed innocent.
Whirls of rumors have been in the air for sometimes now, but if you
dig deep in to the alleged corrupt practices at GOSS, you find that
nothing concrete that proves the suspected. Hence it is not fair to
make judgment before proving it in white and black.
Some of the claims in the air aren’t all true. I’m saying these for
the sake of the truth; in our today payment systems in Finance
Ministry, its not easy for an individual to walk away with money
without being noticed. Thanks to friends from overseas who are
stationed there! If you want a claim or money it takes you not less
than 6 stages by different bodies before it is actually banked. This
means that we have come a long way from our initially start of our
financial management system in 2006 and 2007. Mr. Tisa and Garang, the
Undersecretaries there are doing their best, and we should commend
them for job well done.
Allow me to go religious below: corruption my people, is a sin before
it becomes a crime. If this land would be exorcised from evils of old,
we should not defend anyone who wants to get rich quickly. In our last
government in Juba here in the seventeenth and eighties, we failed
really to live within our means, but did everything to amassed ill
gotten wealth, and God blew everything away. We can’t repeat our past
mistakes again. Let’s not make God angry. It is a sin for the people
of God in the South to ignore that we had Almighty God taking care of
us at that time, and still around with us during the peace time. The
South must do everything to protect its image abroad; my people
weren’t corrupt before.
Isaiah Abraham writes from Juba, he is reachable at [email protected]
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