View of part of the Aweil Rice Scheme in Northern Bahr El Ghazal State. |31st May 2022. |Credit: Emmanuel J. Akile/Eye Radio.

Northern Bahr el Ghazal government has clarified that the reported disappearance of critical machinery including 20 tractors meant for the Aweil Rice scheme did not occur under the incumbent governor’s tenure.

This statement came after the Deputy Minister of Agriculture attributed the loss of bulldozers and graders at the Aweil Rice Scheme to persistent state government interference in its operation and management.

Deputy Minister Lily Albino Akol also accused unnamed individuals in the state of having encroached into the rice scheme, privatizing assets meant for the project, among others.

In response, Northern Bahr el Ghazal Information Minister Gabriel Deng Yel, has distanced the involvement of the incumbent leadership in the asset losses.

Gabriel Deng Yel said it’s not true that the current government rented out or sold tractors, bulldozers, and graders of the national project to private businesses.

“We wish to state unequivocally that the current state government is fully aware of the importance of the Aweil Rice Scheme as one of the national schemes in the country and will do everything in its power to protect and safeguard assets earmarked for the resulting projects,” Yel said.

Instead, the information minister said following the appointment of Governor Mawut in June 2024, he formed the assets recovery committee, in a show of commitment to recovering lost assets and returning them to their rightful institutions.

“It should be understood that the period during which the assets went missing should be specified to avoid incorrectly attributing responsibility to the new state government for actions that were not committed during its limited tenure.”

“It is not true that the current government rented out or sold tractors, bulldozers and graders to private businesses, which then led to damage and abandonment.”

Responding to Deputy National Minister Lily’s assertion about whose authority the Aweil Rice Scheme ought to be, NBGs Minister of Agriculture Garang Chan Atak said the national and state ministries should work in close collaboration.

“Honorable Deputy Minister Lily, please I open my hand to you to beg you today. Let us cooperate as well,” Atak said.

“Some of your colleagues from the national government used to say that this is a national project, yes, it is a national project but under the responsibility or the direct supervision of the State Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Environment.”

“You cannot supervise something that you don’t have authority over. So, the reason why some of the challenges arise in the Aweil scheme is that saying that it is a national project and the state gets some blockade.”

The scheme is a national project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security established by the then Sudanese government in 1944.

It has been the biggest rice farm in the country so far, stretching over about 11,000 hectares.

But since the South Sudan government inherited the scheme upon independence, production had been crippled until August 2023, when the Ministry of Agriculture, UN’s food agencies and the World Bank revived the scheme on a minimum capacity.