Peace and Rehabilitation commission’s acting chairperson, Betty Oboy Itorong speaks to Eye Radio in an exlusive interview on Wednesday|Photo by Moyo Jacob|05-06-2024

The Peace and Reconciliation Commission says it is considering options including distributing assets of the institutions as it risks eviction for failing to paid rental for seven years.

The commission’s acting chairperson, Betty Oboy Itorong told Eye Radio on Wednesday that the commission has been renting someone’s house at 12,000 US dollars a month.

This means, the commission now owes the landlady more than $1 million US for all these years.

“It is a very big amount of $ 12,000 US per month, and the commission does not even get a quarter of that amount in a month as service money. Our service money oscillates between 2 million and 3 million, and what is that, compared to 12,000 US Dollars?

According to Itorong, a landlady has run out of patience and notified them of her intention to sue the institution over the hefty rent amount they have accrued over the years.

“We are actually at the point of eviction because the owner has already given a notice to sue us and after suing what next, it is eviction,” she said, adding that: “We will look for an alternative, whether we distribute the assets, each one takes to his or her home, We will be communicating, it will be like a remote sensing.”

Several institutions have in recent months faced similar fate

Last month, an online allegation indicated, that a senior South Sudanese diplomat at the South Sudan Embassy in Rome, was evicted from his apartment after failing to pay rent for six months.

South Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ramadan Goc said the cash crunch in foreign missions is to blame for the recent incident in which a diplomat was seen crying in the street in Europe.

In February 2022, the National Elections Commission accumulated a three-year rent arrears and was presented a potential eviction after the institution accrued up to over $540,000 in rent for three years.

In October last year, the Chairperson of South Sudan Anti-Corruption Commission warned that the institution was on the verge of collapse and could be evicted from its headquarters anytime due to a lack of funding.