At the conclusion 7th governors’ forum held in December last year, Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) said numerous resolutions and recommendations were adopted and endorsed by the country’s leaders.
CEPO, in a statement, said out of the 28 recommendations on intergovernmental relations agreed upon at the forum, none of them was actually implemented.
It, however, said while none of the resolutions on elections were implemented, there are some efforts for their implementation in process after it recently emerged that the National Elections Commission received funds for its activities.
“Out of 12 recommendations on elections, one recommendation was implemented and efforts for implementation of others is in process,” it observed.
CEPO, however, said the forum recommendation on ensuring freedoms and rights of expression and opinion including space for media was violated by the ruling party (SPLM) and the armed opposition (SPLM-IO) faction in Jonglei State.
It also questioned how the money usually budgeted for the forum was utilized.
Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of CEPO says much funds are spent annually on the forum and less is realized by the adopted outcomes of the event.
“This is absolutely unacceptable for the exercise of spending funds without concrete results. It is wasting tax payers’ money minus proper and tangible returns,” he said.
Yakani called for a functional system where the office of the president and development partners track how money allocated for the forum is actually spent.
He further urged the minister for the presidency to review the implementation of the 7th governors’ forum resolutions and recommendations before June, 2024.
The governors’ forum first commenced in 2006 with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). It was, however, put on hold following the outbreak of the civil war in mid-December 2013.
