The National Legislative Assembly has asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Barnaba Marial, to explain what it describes as a ‘failure of the ministry to maintain the image of the country’.

The committee accuses the ministry of employing unqualified personnel and sending them to foreign missions.

“In our recommendation, we have mentioned that the ministry of foreign affairs is considered the weakest; our foreign missions have failed yet [it gets] $8.5 million per a month,” said Philip Thon, chairman of the committee for foreign affairs in the NLA.

Hon Thon says he has been trying to get the foreign minister to address the parliamentary committee over the matter.

“Since I was appointed the chairman of foreign affairs committee, I have written ten letters summoning the minister to come to the committee and he has only responded to come to us twice.”

“So, I made a summon agreed by the committee to bring him to the house here. We want this house to ask our diplomats to tell us why our image is getting bad in the foreign countries.”

However, the spokesperson of the ministry of foreign affairs, Mawien Makol, says the ministry has not received any official letter asking the minister to appear before the parliament.

He said his minister will not respond to the summon until the ministry receives the letter.

In a recent forum on ‘South Sudan leadership failure’ in the Washington DC, US senators blasted representatives of the South Sudan Foreign affairs ministry.

“I don’t know how representatives of South Sudan can show up at these types of meeting without being totally embarrassed by the actions of their government,” said Bob Corker, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman.

“You’re targeting aid workers. I would be embarrassed to be in a hearing like this. I would be embarrassed to send out the kind of press release that you sent out prior to this hearing. I don’t know what kind of government you represent.”