By Isaiah Abraham
To editor-GURTONG: - The government of the people of South Sudan known then as Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) that has officially became a republican government has struggled to minimize if not to weed out corruption in its system. Numerous attempts by various groups within the same government were used but all have yielded no fruitful results; this is as far as arrests and prosecutions are concern. Artists have also joined the fight against corruption in their written lyrics or songs, but all the same, little has been achieved. The swindlers as ever have been on the business of stealing public money at will. The Treasury is losing millions of pounds every year.
The practice (corruption) comes in many forms, but in our context, financial malpractices have swayed other forms of corruption in our society. Our talks concentrate on money and only money. It is also good to start from where it hurts most- money. But how did thieves make it into the Treasury in the first place? Well, there are wild contracts, medical treatments or referrals, assistances and allowances everywhere, only be a few. Contracts are the worse, about 80% cases of corruption.
There are no proper checks and balances at the Treasury unfortunately. The Treasury Procurement Procedures are loose loops used to enter dubious schemes in the tunes of millions of pounds. Questionable international pretenders come to South Sudan from a well placed personalities and within no time, these people wire back millions of pounds to their respective countries, something Uncle Elijah (former Central Bank Governor) had tried to stop, but somewhere not effective after Khartoum ‘jammed’ the electronic banking system.
Interestingly, the head of state and his team are still with aura to come to the public and offer pronouncements everyone has already heard them making. Please, time for big mouthing and rhetoric about that vice has long gone! What people want and want done now is to follow your earlier pronouncements with actions. Mr. President, sir, people had expected you to expedite the Anti-Corruption Bill of 2011 before the National Legislative Assembly. That is the first step you ought to take if you want everyone to take you serious. That Bill is where we find Prosecution Powers that were missing for years; without teeth, the Anti-Corruption Unit won’t bite and certainly you have nothing you could do at the top.
Who is going to prosecute thieves involve in the Dura Scam? What of the Nile Commercial Bank beneficiaries, who will dare questioning the implicated? How about land grabbing you talked about? Ministry of Justice has never tried a chicken, let alone a human being. Courts are rotten, as corruption fights back like a bear. Mr. President time is up for you to work through institutions and within the law. Going public through our beloved Vice President can’t help the situation. In short, your so-called five steps to wipe out corruption are hog wash meant for public relation gimmick and nothing more.
Look, we have been there few years ago, even if no one could deny your good intention to fight corruption, but don’t forget that this is a monster, that doesn’t need emotions alone, the damage is done and already there; what you need done right now is to use institutional legal means, one of which is that bill before the House, and second is to visit reports made by Anti-corruption about some remedies that are of long term in nature. To bring back money from oversees or wherever is easy said, but involve strong legal institution empowered by the law to do just that.
The public have heard big scam only for culprit to be mysteriously hauled out from their ministerial jobs and no action is followed for the money or assets to be returned. This hyper phobia brings us to another key recommendation for fight against corruption, namely the need to sing or threaten less but execute much. The public is tired of lip service, we want one or two big fish brought before the law and tried. These people are criminals and are still around us, why? What they have done to the people of South Sudan is bad. Leaders ought to live by example and what we are seeing and hearing is appalling and is stark opposite of what we have charted out in our manifestos.
I was glad to hear that President Kiir never returned a scandalous grumpy minister who happened to wed a Ugandan granny using a chopper. You started to ask yourself whether this old man is crazy or the system is crazy. Others have returned smiling all they way back to offices after they reports in their respective ministries criminalized them. The fight against corruption was lost long time ago and time to shout less is here.
I wholeheartedly however welcome the president proposal to import brains from the outside. This is a brilliant idea; the drawback though could be the kind of experts we are looking for from the outside. Let’s try friendly countries, especially our sister countries in East Africa particularly Rwanda and Tanzania, then we can stretch southward to Botswana and Namibia if need be. These countries have over the years developed sustainable economies growth from their meager resources, something we could copy and ‘paste’.
Mr. President needs support from the top, otherwise, am seeing his 100 days pledge coming to naught. No wonder, we are already near half way, and no single primary school (they talk of 30), clinic or road that will be finalized within the next seventy three days. The man has run out of fresh strategies on how to address the issue of corruption in his system. Anti-corruption latest Report that was presented to Parliament last week was a Pandora Box, an embarrassment piece for the government. The Report talks of 123,000 Million United States Dollars scams; the very money we badly need to finish up the road leading to Malakal town or from Malakal to Ethiopian border. Malakal town is one town in our system that badly needs an out let road for goods and services.
We can bemoan one problem, and never take our time and ask ourselves where the rain started to beat us. We had deep crisis in the market, as prices jump the roof, and government did nothing. There were brewing troubles in the Blue and South Kordofan States, but Juba looked away until our black people there were chased away like no humans. Juba could have gone somewhere and sought peaceful solutions to crisis there. We also had our brothers and sisters slaughtered in Uror County in Jonglei State by ruthless murderers from Murle tribe, and the government paid lip service, if any, even the Governor didn’t think of resigning.
Please, Mr. President enough with your talk shows about corruption, the thing will not go away through mere repetition of the same tone, talking yes but also remember, we are humans with limitations as to tolerance ability. I salute the job well done by Dr. Paulino Riak, of the Anti-Corruption Commission and her team. They have sounded an alarm again and again, but apparently no one is ready at the top to help fight effectively. To be exact, the top has been slow or dally-dilly something not nice in the fight against corruption. Madame Riak is a disciplined public officer whose public and private scrutiny makes her the best person for the job. His Assistant Mr. John Saverio Ayik is a distinguished lawyer and a nationalist, a perfect combination that could have spell well for the public. Now that the public jury has shifted to Parliament and the Executive, please we want someone ‘punch in the face’ before we hear so-called critical steps. Dr. Machar never washes dirty linen of these people. they are corrupt.
Isaiah Abraham lives in Juba.