By Baraka John
The Council of Ministers of Western Equatoria State has approved a SSP 31, 852, 952, 292 “post-mortem budget” for the 2024/2025 fiscal year, marking the state’s first formal budget since the formation of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU) in 2020.
The budget was unanimously endorsed during an extraordinary Council of Ministers meeting held on Tuesday, July 15, chaired by the Acting Governor, Hon. Daniel Badagbu Rimbasa.
In a press briefing following the meeting, Acting Minister of Information and Communication, Hon. Ann Tuna Richard, explained that the budget is termed a “post-mortem budget” to reflect its role in reviving long-neglected financial and governance systems.
The state has been working with grants. There was no budget since the revitalized government started. The state government has not passed any budget. So, that is why the Council of Ministers passed this post-mortem budget to pave the way for the next budget. For the fiscal year of 2025-2026. And also so that the arrears of the people that was in 2024 can be followed. Tuna said.
She acknowledged that the absence of a formal budget had crippled essential services across the state. “Infrastructure development, healthcare delivery, and education have all suffered. Prolonged political disputes, limited technical capacity, and insecurity in some counties made things worse,” she added.
Since 2020, Western Equatoria has faced numerous challenges—including internal political conflicts, frequent reshuffles in government leadership, and insecurity stemming from inter-communal violence and armed group activities. These setbacks stalled budget formulation and implementation, creating widespread dysfunction in public service delivery.
Wanga Emmanuel, Executive Director of Vision South Sudan and Chairperson of the Western Equatoria State Network of Civil Society Organizations, described the move as “a great step to rejuvenate a government with a system.”
Western Equatoria is getting back to having a system of governance, and again issues to do with resource mobilization and service delivery to the common people. Our call is only that the government should make the budget public and before it goes to the Parliament. I hope the government should also distribute some copies because these are public documents.” said Emmanuel
The budget now awaits further legislative processes before full implementation can begin.