Lake State Governor, Lawmakers Disagree Over Budget
Lakes State Legislators and the Caretaker Governor Maj-Gen Matur Chut Dhuol on Wednesday differed over the state budget for 2012–2013. 22 March 2013 By Gabriel Mayom RUMBEK, March 22, 2013 (Gurtong)- This follows some adjustments made by the legislators and a consequent reading of the letter from the governor by the parliamentary speaker Hon. Madhieu Makuac asking the legislators to approve the Legislative Assembly or the Secretariat General budget as it is. This year’s monthly budget is around SSP 1.2 according to the legislators. In the letter, the governor stated ‘whatever reason or reasons that have let the Assembly to make these changes, please stop them forthwith and let either the Legislative Assembly budget or the Secretariat General budgets remain as budgeted.’ The letter further read: “I am writing to you this brief note for it has come to my knowledge that the August House made some reductions and transfer of some amounts on the 2013 budget,” he said. “To be specific I am told that the August House has reduced SSP289,407 from the State House services budget and added this amount to the State Legislative Assembly budget. I also understand that the Assembly has also deducted SSP15,000 from the Secretariat General operating budget of 363,387 SSP and spread it as following, (1), SSP2,000 to Information, (2), SSP 2,000 to Youth and Sport and 11,000 SSP to yourself (LSLA services).” Some of the legislators like Marial Ater Amuom reacted bitterly to the governor’s letter. “The Assembly is a talking institution. If we are prevented now not to talk politics, what shall we do? Assembly is paid due to politics - we were elected by our people to talk and work to serve their interest. Government is paying us because we talk politics. It is a surprise for many of us,” he bemoaned. Amuom said the state got provoked when the letter was read in the August House. “The Governor is attempting to undermine the state parliament. All this time, we have been listening to his speeches, threatening to close parliament if political debates continue in state parliament,” he said. “This is an unacceptable behaviour and our Governor must cease this move. He is a caretaker Governor and he should note that laws we are operating on must be respected and valued as state people’s law and not military rush hour law.” He said the state lawmakers will make their final decision on Monday whether or not to pass the budget or operate without a budget. Posted in: Home, Governance -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
