Category: Economy

The Presidency has urged the peace parties to unite and ensure the passing of the national budget to satisfy the salary scales of the civil servants, military and the organized forces.

Currently, a two-point-one trillion-pound budget for the fiscal year 2023/2024 is under scrutiny by the national legislature.

The budget proposed a 400-percent increment of current civil servants’ salaries. It also allocated 50 billion pounds for implementation of the peace deal.

On Friday, the presidency convened a meeting and discussed the status of the budget.

“The meeting  aimed to discuss the issue of the budget with regards to the deficits as a result of any changes which are pre-made in the parliament in relation to make it passable or how to satisfy specially the salary scale,”said the Presidential Affairs Minister Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin.

The Presidential Advisor on Security Affairs Tut Gatluak, Cabinet and Finance Ministers Dr Elia Lumoro and Dier Tong Ngor as well as other political party leaders  attended.

Minister Marial said the presidency agreed that the parties meet as  caucuses in the parliament to unify their positions in passing the national budget..

“The Presidency agreed that these parties will meet their caucuses in the parliament to unify their positions with regard to passing  the budget which must be based on the agreement that the government is united and agreed as a single body,” he said.

Dr Marial added that the peace principals also discussed the issue of revenue and how to increase revenue from oil production by 40.000 barrels per day saying this is to “will help the government to resolve all the concerns.”   

Last week the national Minister of Information told members of parliament not to exaggerate the issue of the draft 2023-2024 budget, saying it was designed based on the reality of resource estimation.

Makuei was responding to some members of parliament blaming the executive branch of the government for their failure to create a budget that adequately addresses the needs of the people.

Officials from the National Bureau of Standards have called on government institutions and the private sector to work collectively in ensuring that citizens are protected from purchasing unhealthy food from the markets.

The remarks came as the Bureau of Standards on Thursday confiscated and burned more than 10 tons of expired food items collected from various markets across the national capital, Juba.

The items burnt this week on Thursday were collected from shops and stores in Juba, Munuki, Kator, and Konyo-Konyo markets last month.

These include wheat flour, sugar, powdered milk, oil, and soap among others.

Dr Rachel Benjamin Bol who is the Head of the Marketing Department in The National Bureau of Standards said some of the impounded and torched food items were poorly stored and risked poisoning the citizens.

” Due to these expired materials and some other damages due to improper storage we collected them from the markets, and today [Thursday we have brought them here for burning,” said Mrs Benjamin.

Explaining the decision to burn the expired items, the official said this was done “Because improper storage may cause poisoning to citizens if they eat these products…”

For her part, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Bureau of Standards Mary Gordon Muortat urged consumers to be cautious when purchasing goods from traders.

This is done by checking the expiry date of the food items including the odor, flavor, or texture.

Meanwhile, the Director of Quality Assurance, Glory Nyoka has called on government institutions, the private sector, and the citizens to work together in protecting the health.

“As you know, it’s our mandate to protect our consumers but it’s still a collective responsibility as the National Bureau of Standards and other government institutions and the private sector and even individuals to work together and make sure that what we are consuming is healthy,” she said.

This come nearly two months after the National Bureau of Standard impounded  63 three trucks loaded with maize grains after samples were taken from the items tested for high aflatoxin.