South Sudan lost over $91 million in three months – lawmakers

JUBA – South Sudan parliament has said that it has been told that the country’s National Revenue Authority (NRA) has in the last three months lost around SSP 4 billion ($91,046,234)  as country faces economic challenges mostly blamed on corruption, COVID-19 pandemic and decline of oil prices at the international market.

Paul Yoane Bonju, the head of the parliamentary specialized parliamentary committee on information told journalists on Sunday that the parliament was informed of the lost by the economic crisis management committee on Friday that  those amount were lost in the last three months.

“The total amounts actually lost is 38, 239, 418, 474 pounds,” said Hon. Yoane adding that “The revenue is lost through the UN agencies, non-government organization, the diplomatic missions, faith-based groups, including churches, fifth through the government and lastly [some] companies.”

The parliamentarian further said the lost of the public funds was unacceptable without saying if there would be accountability.

“The ABC has the necessary leverage to find out exactly who is behind this authorization because sometimes directives come from above to release or exempt the goods of company A, B and C -forgetting that this money belongs to the people of South Sudan,” he asserted.

South Sudan is in a serious economic crisis.

Last month, President Salva Kiir formed a committee to manage the economic crisis mainly caused by corruption. The weeks before the formation of that committee, the Central bank of South Sudan said it had ran out of hard currency and said it could not control the price of the US dollar which had reached an unprecedented level.