8th Governors Forum. (Photo: Lou Nelson/Eye Radio).

Delegates to the 8th Governor’s Forum in Juba have resolved numerous items including calling on the national government to immediately pay civil servants, remove illegal roadblocks, and ban illegal taxes to boost commerce.

Throughout the forum, participants discussed intergovernmental relations, elections and civic space, climate change and humanitarian issues in the forum themed Forging Sustainable Peace: Committed Action in the Extended R-ARCSS.

The secretariat said a total of 95 resolutions and recommendations are currently being organized before the final document is produced.

On November 28, Lakes and Northern Bahr el Ghazal governors urged the national government to clarify the delay in paying salary arrears of civil servants and organized forces during their presentations.

The demand for clarification on the delayed payment of accumulated salaries and arrears which Lakes Governor Rin Tueny Mabor termed a “salary disaster” was one of the dominant issues discussed by the forum.

The government workforce has not received accumulated salary arrears for 11 months, which has been blamed on an economic crisis caused by the rupture of an oil pipeline.

Leben Nelson, Head of the Secretariat of the 8th Governors’ Forum, read out the resolutions at the end of the forum in Juba this afternoon.

“Ministry of Finance and Planning to pay salary arrears and monthly salary of public servants,” he pronounced.

“Two, national government in coordination with states and administrative areas should remove all illegal checkpoints along national roads and water ways along the Nile, Sobat and Naam.”

“Three, national government should ban illegal tax collection along roads and water ways and other locations to boost commerce. Four, ensure security along all roads so that movement of people and goods are not impeded.”

The forum further resolved the need to establish a special court to try child abductors and cattle raiders in a bid to end the practice in the county.

“Stop women and child abduction as well as cattle raiding and rustling in Jonglei, Greater Pibor Administrative Area, Central Equatoria state and other places and return abducted child to their families.”

“Six, set up a special court to prosecute child abductors and cattle rustlers. Seven, national government should relocate all cattle camps of Jonglei State in Greater Equatoria and armed cattle harders back to Jonglei as required by Presidential order of 2017.”

For his part, President Salva Kiir said there is a need to work collectively to ensure that resolutions are implemented.

“I urge all of us to work collectively at the national, states and Administrative Area levels to implement the resolutions of the 8^th Governor’s Forum. We must realize tangible results as we meet for the next forum.”

The Governors’ Forum is an annual event organized since 2016 by the Office of the President with support from UNDP and other partners on policies that touch on the humanitarian, peace and development nexus.

Prior to the commencement of this year’s forum, a civil society activist voiced skepticism over the significance of event, saying past forums adopted a long list of recommendations that were not implemented.

Ter Manyang, Executive Director of Center for Peace and Advocacy (CPA) said the annual discussions aimed to foster national cohesion and set the country on a path to a peaceful transition toward democratic governance, has however yielded little to no benefit.

Manyang said the forum should not serve as a platform where government officials “waste significant amounts of money” and fail to provide meaningful resolutions that benefit ordinary citizens.