Northern Bahr el Ghazal state Minister of Agriculture and Forestry has two weeks to refund public money and fuel that he misappropriated, the state parliament has announced.

Parliamentarians say Mr Lual Dau Marach lost over 100, 000 South Sudanese Pounds and misused over 890,000 liters of public fuel, accusations he denied.

The fuel was given to the state by national government for agricultural activities. This includes the mechanized Aweil Rice Scheme.

The MPs say Mr. Dau used the resources for his personal use.

Aguer Wol Aguer, Chairperson of the Agricultural Committee in the state parliament, who is also in the committee auditing Mr. Dau’s ministry, says records show malpractices in the ministry.

“About 8900,000 liters was loaned out to some individuals,” Mr Aguer said.

“And again there was some money that was generated in the state ministry of agriculture especially in the rice scheme, there were assets sold, cars, and tractors. The total was about 814, 295 SSP.”

Mr Aguer added that the ministry also lost about $13000 for food assets under unclear circumstances.

He says the parliament is likely to either pass vote of no confidence on Mr. Dau, or charge him in the court of law.

However, Mr Dau Marach said the fuel and the money were used on work related activities.

“What the ministry of finance did with this fuel was to repair our state’s roads. These repairs used the fuel that was taken from ministry of agriculture,” Mr Marach argued.

“So yes, the fuel was loaned out but it was not me; I didn’t take it for personal use. I used it for the cost of the same government and since we were running the same government, I felt we could work together.”

Honorable Dau is expected to appear before the parliament in two weeks.