By William Garang
Vice President for the Economic Cluster, Dr. James Wani, said that South Sudan must pass its national budget on time alongside the East African Community peer nations.
In his opening remark at the fourth high-level forum summit on fiscal devolution and revenue management EAC member states are disgusted by South Sudan’s late budget passing.
“Congratulation to parliament, they were able to pass our budget yesterday [Monday] congratulation Rt deputy speaker of the Council of States and all members of parliament,” Igga said.
“I think that was great. By the way, next time, let us not be behind time. Because even the East Africa community is now very disgusted with us,” he added.
VP Igga noted that EAC peer nations had their budget passed in June in order to begin operating their new financial year in July. However, South Sudan is six months late, which is ‘shameful.’
The Vice President also urged the cabinet and parliament to improve the next national budget in time.
“Let us change by starting earlier and with a leading speed; it is not good to be lagging behind all the time; they [EAC] would say what is wrong with South Sudan all the time their budget is late,” he stressed.
Also, he noted late payment of salaries, saying sometimes civil servants spend about three months without salaries, attributing it to the late transfer of money from income-generating institutions.
“All the income-generating units, let us not wait for the date 30 to send our proceeds to the ministry of finance through the bank because date 30 people are supposed to be paid,” he added “Let the customs send money starting from date 20, let it reach finance so that finance does papers quickly, and then it is paid at the end of the month – not three or six months,”
The recently passed South Sudan budget comes months after the region’s partner states passed their budgets for the next financial year.
On Monday, the South Sudan transitional parliament passed the SSP 4.2 trillion budget for fiscal year 2024/25.
However, the Finance Ministers such as Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, member states of the East African Community (EAC), tabled their respective 2024/25 budgets before their respective parliaments in June 2024.
In June this year, a member of parliament representing South Sudan in the East Africa Legislative Assembly expressed concerns over the delayed submission of the fiscal year 2024/2025 budget in his country.