Jonglei Traders Accuse State Government Officials Of Diverting LCs Traders Union in Jonglei State has accused government officials of diverting millions of dollars being brought for traders since last year as letter of credits (LCs) for personal benefit. 27 July 2015
By Jacob A. Jok *BOR, 26 July 2015 [Gurtong] *–The traders believe that the market’s skyrocketing prices is due to lack of hard currency in the State. The accusation is being denied by the LCs management in the State Ministry of Finance and economic planning. Mabior Kuol Ajok, the Secretary of the traders in Jonglei State said that government officials distributed the LCs among themselves and later sold to the black market. He said the LCs instead ended up in the hands of government officials who were not traders. “Only eight companies out of 38 known registered companies got it, and lots of money was taken by government officials who are not traders,” Mabior Kuol told Gurtong in Bor. Meanwhile, John Deng Wuol the Director General in the Ministry of Finance and a former chairperson in the management of Letter of credits in Jonglei State said “I believe most of the traders in Jonglei State we gave them the LCs.” Deng Wuol said that 26 companies in the first round of distribution were given LCs out of 41 companies and then the second round were issued to 38 companies. Since 2013, Central Equatoria, Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity States have received 10 million USD in form of LCs. As the number of registered companies increased from 38 to 63 in Jonglei State in 2015, most new trading companies are either foreign or non-existing companies owned by government officials or their relatives, according to the traders. With increasing need for hard currency amidst its scarcity, most of the essential goods are no longer affordable to low-income families, inflicting high cost of living. Posted in: Home <http://www.gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial/tabid/124/ctl/CategoryView/mid/519/categoryId/1/Home.aspx> -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- 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]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14oobFADyjjY-b17rxh34hC9Bu59Xf%3DouXQfnSTVEqXSNiQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
