By Ephraim Modi Duku Sokiri
Yei River County Commissioner, Aggrey Cyrus Kanyikwa has revealed that the local council legislators will have their second quarter meeting in April to deliberate on matters concerning the county.
He made the above statement on Monday following a sentiment made by the spokesperson of the United South Sudan Party Mr. Taban Stephen Kiri calling for the activation of the reconstituted transitional legislative assemblies in Central Equatoria State local government and municipal board.
Speaking to No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper, Commissioner Cyrus highlighted on the role of the local legislative council in addressing issues in the community and how they get treasured for their efforts.
“The local government legislative council conducts quarterly meetings, they don’t have salaries, but they have sitting allowances depending on the sittings that they conduct and the number of days that they consume during the sitting,” he stated.
“They can be called for some extra ordinary local legislative sitting whenever the executive feel that there is an urgent situation that requires their attention,” he continued.
In that quarter, the commissioner clarified that the executive’s role is to identify matters arising and require deliberations by the chairperson to agree on a tentative date within the quarter to organize for a session.
He further explained that the councilors are obliged to interact with the people in the community and aid the executives in key findings and needs that may need to be addressed on a specific area of jurisdiction of the standing committee.
“Unless they don’t know their role then they can be idle, they are there with the community, they are there with the people, they are to address issues that arise and help the community leaders in addressing issues with the areas that constitutes their constituencies,” he noted.
The commissioner also echoed that it is only the Chairpersons and the vices of the legislative council and that of the standing communities within the local council that are mandated with regular roles on daily basis depending on the arrangement of the heads and receive administrative allowances.
“When we were swearing in the county legislative council, the commissioner (Aggrey) issued out a policy statement on the status of the county and the councilors sit (sat) immediately… to deliberate on the policy of the commissioner to come out with resolutions,” Commissioner Aggrey explained.
He said in the first sitting, the areas of concern were the sitting, transport, feeding and accommodation allowances for those who resides from a far distance and other issues tabled were not yet presented to the commissioner with resolutions hanging.
Last year, the Mayor of Juba City, His Worship Michael Lado Allah-Jabu has alluded that the nomination of the Juba City Legislative Council, councilors had been politicized based on the peace agreement.
The Juba city legislative council is the laws and policy making body of the Juba City Council which legislate bylaws for the city council like any other legislative council all over South Sudan.
Efforts to reach the Juba Mayor and other county commissioners for comment on the concerns being raised by the USSP leader over the inactiveness of the local government councils in the Central Equatoria state were not immediately successful by press time.