Spokesperson of Parliament, Hon. Oliver Mori Benjamin - Credit: Obaj Okuj/Eye Radio April 22 , 2024

The National Legislative Assembly has reversed the decision to summon VP James Wani Igga due to overlapping mandates.

Early this week, the parliament resolved to summon officials including Vice President Wani to explain what they were doing to address hunger in South Sudan.

However, the chairperson of the Specialized Committee of Information, Oliver Mori Benjamin, retreated from his earlier statement that Dr. James Wani was among those summoned by parliament.

The resolution was adopted during parliament’s regular sitting after Stephen Bol Ley, an SPLM-IO lawmaker representing Mayom County in Unity State tabled an urgent motion about the looming hunger in his constituency.

After thorough deliberation on the motion, the house decided to summon Vice President Wani and members of the economic cluster.

But, Hon. Mori now says that the ministers in the cluster will rather be the ones to appear in the parliament.

“The chairpersons of the clusters are overseers to the respective ministries under them and they do not have executive powers and if there is anything, it is the minister concerned in that cluster to answer in parliament,” Mori clarified to journalists at his office in parliament.

“The parliament did not summon the vice president in charge of the economic cluster on the basis that he is part of the collegial presidency and he does not have executive power over the ministers performing their duties,” he said.

“No vice president has got an accounting officer but for the ministers in any ministry, there is an undersecretary who is the accounting officer.

“For any shortcoming, the minister will ask the undersecretary to explain. Even in the budget process, it is the undersecretary who is the accounting officer.”

Oliver Mori further explained the reason why the parliament retracted its earlier decision to summon Vice President Dr. James Wani Igga.

“Indeed over this issue, when this leadership set with the legal advisors and the top leadership of the Parliament they found that there was overlapping,” he explained.

“This is why they came to this conclusion because there is a solution of the Parliament is not what is discussed there and it is sent to the minister or the president,” he said.

“It is after the sitting of this body of the Parliament then the Right Honorable Speaker will write to the minister of Parliamentary Affairs that this is the resolution of the house.

“As for the constitution, it is the President who is exempted but as for the agreement which super seats the constitution, the colloquial presidency said that consists of the president and the five vice president is super into the constitution.”