The government says the crisis will have a negative impact on this year’s budget and service delivery in the country.

Last year, the National Legislative Assembly approved 9 billion South Sudanese pounds for infrastructure and basic service delivery.

However, a Member of Parliament says the impact of the ongoing conflict will mean some funds will be redirected to other priorities.

The chairperson of the Economic, Development and Finance Committee at the Parliament, Paul Jumi Lugala, told Eye Radio that the approved budget for the financial year, which runs from mid 2013 to mid 2014, will likely not be directed at improving health and roads.

“Obviously the budget cannot go the way it is supposed to go because there are certain things which have come up now which were not budgeted for: the army, the humanitarian crisis – you have heard how people have been displaced. We have to take care of them because we need to help our people, give those services to those in camps. So the budget of 2013/2014 cannot be implemented the way it is supposed to be,” he said.

Honorable Jumi said that the austerity measures which were expected to be lifted this month will remain in place because of the violence.

“The President made it clear last time that come January, everybody gets service money, the allowance, all will come back, but now this situation came even without the President knowing it. So automatically we will go back to austerity measures. We cannot avoid it until the situation improves, then again we shall bring those things back. But now we cannot talk of improvement of salary or increment of salary. We cannot,” Honorable Jumi said.

Honorable Jumi urged people to be patient with the government as the country tries to resolve the ongoing crisis.

Recently President Kiir formed a Crisis Management Committee to help people affected by the violence.

The committee is expected to submit its budget to the National Legislative Assembly for approval next week.