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

The parliament spokesperson has affirmed that the August House is not officially aware of the $ 13 billion loan agreement allegedly offered by a United Arab Emirates oil company in exchange for 20 years of South Sudan crude oil.

The agreement, contained in a report of the UN Security Council’s panel of experts, was first published by the Bloomberg news agency, but it is yet to be officially released to the public.

Negotiated on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai last year, the deal is said to be nearly double the GDP of South Sudan and about five times the country’s current external debt of 2.5 billion US dollars.

But Spokesperson of Parliament, Oliver Mori Benjamin says the parliament has not been informed of any such agreement between the government of South Sudan and a UAE company, as reported in the media.

Mori states that parliamentary procedures do not operate based on hearsay or fabricated media reports; rather, they require authentic documentation.

He stressed that any authentic documents related to the agreement should be presented to the council of ministers and then later to the parliament for proper review and approval before becoming effective.

“For us, if somebody has those authentic documents in regards to that it is better, they bring them forward otherwise procedurally we know that when they are contracts for loans for anything before it becomes effective it comes to the Parliament first for them to debate and give the green light,” Moris stated in an exclusive interview with Eye Radio on Thursday.

“So far up to this time, we are talking with you, the Parliament has not received any official document of what you are talking about,” he said.