Revealing the rot in the Dura deals
Reports . Was there fraud? Or were they safe transactions? Justice Minister John Luk Jok has named a seven member committee to investigate the controversial grain deals in which the government lost 6.27 b South Sudanese Pounds (SSP) four years ago. But a World Bank team -- known as the Stolen Asset Recovery (STAR) -- examined 823 companies and established that the lost funds stood at 3.6b SSP, the minister said. The government set out to hire companies to supply maize and dura as part of a grain reserve policy in 2008. The essence of the policy was to stock the grains to later be sold to the citizens at a subsidized prize in hunger periods. In what became known as the Dura Saga, some companies allegedly received payments for consignments they did not deliver. Others that had delivered the gains weren’t paid, thus bungling the scheme. The seven-member team is headed by Prosecutor General Filberto Mayuot Mareng, with Consul General Dr. Moa Moti, Senior Consul Biong, Auditor General Chamber’s Jok Bir and senior police officer from the Ministry of Interior Akur Lia, among others, as members. Their investigation will be based on the forensic audit by the World Bank’s STAR team, Mr Luk said. “We have been waiting for a report like this, which now came to the Ministry of Finance and to the Council of Ministers, and the Council of Ministers directed the Minister of Justice to immediately proceed with the necessary investigations and prosecution in cases where there is proven evidence,” the minister said, referring to the STAR report. The STAR classified companies under investigation into two: White and black lists. On the white list, according to Luk, are companies that had safe transactions. In this list, 21 had adequate documentation to support their payment. Another 39 suppliers have to clarify legal issues yet before they are paid. But in the black list, with 715 companies, comes the trouble. The list is further categorized into two. In the first group are 266 suppliers with missing documentation. In the second are 497 suppliers with severe misgivings, more than half of which were dramatically paid without contracts. “This is a serious matter to be investigated; that these companies received payments but there are no files anywhere to be found that link these payments and claims or that justifies these claims or payments,” the minister said. But that is not the end of the dark picture. Another 67 companies on that black list received huge payments without supporting documents. 151 others had proper documents, but, stunningly, they were overpaid. Minister Luk emphasized the criminal nature of the investigation. “The Committee that we have set up now, of course, is set up under the Code of Criminal Procedures: it is not an administrative investigation,” he said. “They have all the powers under Criminal Procedures to arrest anybody; whatever his status.” “And if they are constitutional post holders,” Luk continued, “their immunity will be lifted immediately, whether they are ministers or members of parliament or anybody who claims any immunity.” Some 706m SSP has already been paid to settle claims arising from this saga, the minister said, but many companies on the clean list are still demanding payment. He said the Anti-Corruption Commission will be involved in the investigation, starting with the ministry of finance and extending to all institutions that approved contracts or received money for the dura and maize. The committee will work full time until the investigation is complete, Luk said. -- 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14oos63yN90ns2Y05EWE6of0Km%3D%3DzkjXuW9y7H6t%3D9EbR%3DQ%40mail.gmail.com?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
