By William Madouk Garang
South Sudan Anti-Corruption Commission (SSACC) is calling on the Ministry of Finance to immediately avail funds to pay cumulative rent arrears of 7,200,000 South Sudanese Pound (SSP) to landlord that accommodates government institutions.
Last week, landlord who rented his buildings to the National Anti-Corruption Commission locked his building after the institution failed to pay over Seven million South Sudanese Pounds, an accrued rental arrears of one year.
Jeremiah Ater, the Executive Director of the Commission confirmed to media that indeed they were thrown out of the building due to accumulative rental arrears leaving staff in bewilderment.
In a phone interview with No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper, Ater said the offices are still locked. He is urging the Ministry of Finance and Planning to speed up the payment of the accrued rental fees.
“We need this money to be paid because he [the landlord] has waited for a year. So, he has been patient and now I believe he lost the patience,” Ater reiterated.
“The landlord has waited for a year! So, let Ministry of Finance release the money so that we can pay the rent,” he said.
However, Mr. Ater said they had already sent tenant agreement to the national ministry of finance and was approved, but the administrative procedures are the ones delaying payment.
“Yes, we sent the rent agreement and it was approved but the processes take time because it goes to many hands, it goes to 1st Undersecretary, Director General of account, director of account and to account sections in different department. So, we have not received anything yet,” he stated.
He further revealed that, the main entrance of the rented offices is still closed, and all the documents, stamps and headed papers are locked inside.
“No operations really because the stamp is inside and the headed papers are inside. So, we are not responding to a lot of communications simply because of the stamp,” he said.
“We tried to convince him [the landlord], and he’s saying you can give me half of the money and we cannot get half of the money. So, we are still waiting, there’s no operation – we just go and sit there, if there’s any meeting we can see,” he added.
The South Sudan Anti-Corruption is a body mandated by the Interim Constitution to investigate cases of corruption in the public and private sectors to help in combating administrative malpractices in public institutions.