South Sudan Parliament Billed To Go Tough on Graft, Hold Government Accountable
By Okech Francis
South Sudan’s new parliament will be inaugurated soon but its being warned against falling in the flaws of its predecessor, being a puppet to the government of the day.
A peace agreement under implementation bills the law house to help formalize regulations that will steer the country out of war and into peace after three years of a transitional government currently in place.
It’s a large house, including former rebels and opposition leaders, to a figure of 550 members and a juicy mix of former friends and foes.
A member of the new house is already relishing going hard on the government in line with putting “the interest of the people of South Sudan first.”
“We must look into it that the executive is made accountable before the parliament,” Gen Salva Mathok Gengdit, who is also part of the new house, said in an interview on June 7.
“And this time we must empower the anti corruption commission to follow swiftly, all institutions must be audited periodically, maybe every quarterly to ensure compliance with proper use of resources.”
Gengdit is a former Deputy Minister of Interior. He served in the last parliament as a representative for Gogrial East.
Parliaments in the new nation have always been viewed as rubber stamps of President Salva Kiir, simply endorsing whatever his administration deems fit for running the country.
Gengdit warned the parliament had been holding the government with kids gloves leading to a lot of things going wrong in the administration of the country.
“The parliament should be the sole authority in the country as dictated by constitution,” Gengdit said.
“In the past, when ministers are summoned, they do not come, this must change,” he said.
“The institutions set up to fight corruption are very week, the anti-corruption commission is not well established and the judiciary also is a problem by itself,” Gengdit lamented.
“If all these areas are empowered, we can reduce this disease call corruption.”
