By Ephraim Modi D.S
South Sudan contractors are unhappy with the government as most contracts are being allotted to Foreign Service providers.
The national service providers raised the complaint yesterday during a validation workshop of public procurement and disposal of assets regulations 2022, and standard procurement documents dated 17th-26th May, 2022.
The chairperson of the Association of South Sudan Contractors (ASSCO), Malish Martin said South Sudanese are being marginalized in all parameters of both private and public procurements.
He defied the country procurement law and regulations, saying the country doesn’t have clear procurement law.
“South Sudan is currently marginalized in all parameters of both private and public procurements due to absence of a clear procurement law and regulation. To minimize corruption and create conducive environment that promotes participation of South Sudanese owned companies and contractors, this regulation must be written clearly and directly,” Mr. Malish said.
Malish commended the process of validating the public procurement and disposal of assets regulations and standard procurement documents (PPDAA) as a major step to solve and correct all the challenges.
“Your work is of great importance in this regard and we had been looking forward to such a time so that together we can correct once and for all the anomalies that exist in the current procurement setup,” he said.
In addition, Malish stressed that South Sudanese are mostly spectators in the current development with contracts being executed by mainly foreigners.
“We are surrounded with water but this water is not drinkable! A person dies of thirst in the sea yet he is surrounded by water,” Malish stressed.
Moreover, he stated that the country has lots of ongoing contracts, but arguing that at the end, it can be given to foreign contractors, yet these foreigners later take the money to develop their country.
He said the worst is these foreign contractors go back to their country and bring people from there to do work at the sites.
“Today, South Sudan is in the same predicament, there seems like a lot of development, many busy contractors, suppliers and consultancies going on but the truth of the matter is that foreigners are the ones mostly in charge! And they even go ahead to bring their own people to work in these projects and send home the money to develop their own countries of origin,” ASSCO Cahir said.
Malish however said ASSCO will work hard to forward to PPDAA, so that their concerns are taken into consideration in order to build strong PPDAA that oblige a national interest.
“As key stake holders, ASSCO seeks representation in the PPDAA to ensure our concerns are taken into consideration from time to time so that together we can build a strong PPDAA that serve the interest of the people of South Sudan first and foremost,” Malish said.