Minister of Information, Michael Makuei addresses media in Juba. [Photo by Eye Radio].

The minister of information says South Sudan is not obliged to report its expenditures to anybody but the country’s parliament.

Michael Makuei was responding to questions from reporters regarding the recurrent loans South Sudan gets from international financial institutions.

This comes after the Minister of Finance and Planning said the International Monetary Fund, early this month, approved over 114 million US dollars to help South Sudan address its food insecurity and stabilize the market.

Dier Tong Ngor said the IMF approved the 114.8 US dollars in emergency financing under the Food Shock Window of the Rapid Financing Instrument.

During the announcement of the amount, Kenji Okamura, the deputy managing director, and the acting chair of IMF called on South Sudan to increase its oil-sector transparency, strengthening the debt management framework and expenditure controls, and regular reporting on debt and fiscal operations among others.

In response to the IMF recommendations brought up by a journalist, Makuei said South Sudan government is independent and not required to explain its expenditure to any other foreign-based institution.

“South Sudan does not report to anybody except to its parliament on the expenses and everything. We are an independent government, and if we are independent, we don’t report on our expenditures to others, so we are independent,” he said.

“If you think that we have been reporting to the World Bank, telling them that this is what we got and this is how we have spent, I’m sorry.”

Makuei was addressing journalists in Juba after the regular Council of Ministers meeting in Juba on Friday, March 24, 2023.

South Sudan has been borrowing millions of dollars from IMF and World Bank among others.

In June last year, the International Monitory Fund and the World Bank suspended loans to South Sudan because the country failed to meet certain conditions that the global financial institutions set for the acquisition of further loans.