Newly-built Juba-Terekeka road. (Photo: CES Press Unit).
The Specialized Committee on Finance and Planning at the National Parliament is calling for the suspension of a Council of Ministers Resolution allocating the Nile Blend crude oil for infrastructure and development projects.
South Sudan approved the oil for infrastructure development initiative in March 2019, where a Chinese firm would receive 30,000 barrels per day in the Dar Blend oil to build roads linking the national capital with the rest of the states.
However, the country has been beset by catastrophic inflation after the Sudan war led to the destruction of a crucial pipeline transporting 60 per cent of oil to Port Sudan.
The situation has caused the pound currency to depreciate to a record level against the US dollar as the entire government workforce has not been paid for nearly one year.
During a sitting on Wednesday, the parliamentary committee urged the government to revisit its priorities by suspending the oil for road initiative and channelling the revenue produced in the Unity State and Ruweng Administrative Area to salaries.
The committee also called for the deposition of income raised from oil and non-oil revenue collection in the government salary account.
Presenting a two-page document on the issue, Committee Chairperson Changkuoth Bichiock Reath, said suspending such a decision will enable the Ministry of Finance and Planning to pay civil servants salaries and wages.
Mr Bichiock said the suggestion was made based on the revenue figures being raised by the South Sudan Revenue Authority and the export of the Nile blend crude oil.
“After consulting both figures of South Sudan Revenue Authority collections and the Nile blend, I am therefore suggesting and request this August House to direct the Minister of Finance/Planning and the SSRA Commissioner-General to put the SSRA collections into the government salary account instead of the other account,” Bichiok said, reading the statement.
“Suspend the resolution of the Council of Ministers resolution which allocates the Nile Blend Crude Oil (Block 1, 2,4 and 5A) for an infrastructure development project, and redirects it to pay and clear the wages and salaries of the entire government and the government operation.”
According to the lawmaker, once the recommendation is adopted, the salaries and wages of the entire government workforce could be cleared until a better solution is found.
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