Bor
In an open letter seen by the South Sudan Friendship Press, the Jonglei Civil Society Network (JCSN) have criticised the state government’s response to recent disasters in the Jonglei area.
Taking aim at the ‘disasters of water’, or flooding, which have affected Jonglei in recent months, the letter demands local authorities repair broken dykes with the tax money collected from markets, hotels, airports and personal income.
‘Jonglei state government is planning to clear their expensive incurred in five hotels for accommodating government officials and the advanced team of Mr Governor’, the statement notes.
The JCSN list the Park Palace, Freedom, South Sudan and Safari Hotels in Bor as the recipients of the Jonglei government money. These hotels cost on average $100USD per night.
In further claims of misspending, the letter claims that privilege of luxury accommodation has been extended to non-government officials working with the Governor.
‘State resources are spent on their welfare, forgetting the suffering of innocent children and women of Jonglei State from flooding and when the citizens cry out for rescue from their Government, the complaints put on the face of the citizens is lack of finances to construct and fix the dyke’, the Civil Society Network wrote.
As the self proclaimed ‘watchdog, check and balance’ of the local government, the Civil Society Network ask why Jonglei state officials are accommodating officials near their homes, spending 500,000SSP per week on their upkeep.
Instead, the JCSN calls on Governor Chagor to focus on those priorities that matter to Jonglei State and its residents.
‘Jonglei State is one state with huge resources and characterised with poor health facilities and environment, poor roads and poor town planning and infrastructure’, JCSN argues.
‘As a matter of urgency, we are calling fo the immediate correction of these issues to save the state government from further financial crisis.’
Comments