South Sudan’s president: Our government is too big, must downsize

One of the topics raised by South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, during recent independence celebrations, was the size of the government and the amount of money it took to finance it.

Downsizing the government was an option that is worth considering at this time of economic crisis, Kiir said.

There are currently 56 ministers, over two dozen deputy ministers, almost two dozen chairpersons of committees and their deputies and ten presidential advisers. This large cabinet was formed in August 2011 despite reservations raised by opposition parties that all these governmental posts were well beyond the country’s means. Now those fears seem to have been confirmed.

And, Kiir said, he certainly did not want to expand the government any further despite some plans to create more counties in South Sudan.

If I announce new counties, then there is need for vehicles for each of the newly appointed county commissioners and for the construction of their residential houses and head offices -- all of which is very expensive at this stage,” Kiir argued, pointing out that some existing counties do not even have completed headquarters.

Opposition leader, Onyoti Adigo, who heads the SPLM-DC group, also commented. We have a huge government which has become unmanageable due to the loss of our oil revenue,” he pointed out. There is a need to reduce the number of ministers to a maximum of fifteen and to reduce the number of presidential advisors from ten to three, as well as to abolish advisors to ministers.”

Adigo said that the country was running out of hard currency and he urged the government to move quickly and to focus on delivering basic services and encouraging economic development, as well as to try and recover a missing US$4 billion that is presumed embezzled.

Adigo also expressed worries about South Sudan’s decision to join the East African Community, a regional organisation of five nations with a common market for goods, labour and capital and plans to eventually establish a common currency, at a time when the country needed every cent it could get.

We import goods from East Africa, so if we join, then we will no longer be able to get as much benefit from custom duties,” Adigo said.

A budget filled with austerity measures had been presented to Parliament and the country’s Minister of Finance had asked the South Sudanese people to tighten their belts”.

But as MP Lino Wuor said, if we must talk of tightening economic belts, then it must start with the executive.”

Reducing the number of ministers will be the only way of maintaining our economy in this era of oil shut down,” Wuor concluded.

Not everyone was quite as negative about the size of the government though. MP Mary Atong, a member of the ruling party and one of the heads of the Committee of Information and Culture, felt that her government had achieved a lot despite various crises.

If you look at infrastructure development and the decentralisation of resources, we’ve actually done a lot,” Atong said. And in two years time we will be able to export rice and sugar into East Africa.”
 
As a result, Atong felt that decreasing Cabinet numbers was not the right answer. Rather, she argued, the focus should be on the exploitation of other resources that South Sudan had, such as gold and agricultural land.

Give your leaders a chance and some support” she concluded.