South Sudan’s resources continue to be mismanaged: official

By Simon Deng

South Sudan is rich in natural resources but lacks proper management leading to gross abuse, the Deputy Minister of Finance, Agok Makur said.

Speaking at an economic policy dialogue in the capital Juba on Tuesday, Makur said public finance also has been grossly mismanaged in South Sudan, laying blame on six years of crisis.

“We have abundance of resources but it is war that brought mismanagement of resources,” Makur said.

“Now that we have peace, the government needs to look for experts, outside or inside to help in the proper management of our resources,” he said.

“We need to find a way for the effective management of our resources, it is time to identify our resources and get mean of using our resources.”

The crisis which began in 2013 left 400,000 people dead, displaced four million others and led to economic chaos by slashing crude output, the country’s main source of revenue.

Reforms in the economic sector are taking place as instituted by a peace deal reached in 2018.

The government in coordination with other stakeholders must provide better assessment of the available and potential resources across the country to ensure the reforms are successful, Abraham Maliat Mamer, an economic analyst told Juba Echo.

“We need to have efficient resource mobilization, efficient resource identification, every resource we have in this country needs to be mapped,” Mamer said.

“We do not know the quantity of oil reserve in this country, we have not mapped it, we are basing on it through guessing.”

Mamer warned that South Sudan may be cheated when investors are invited into the country.