By Deng Athian
A five-member technical committee tasked to design a master plan for construction of Northern Bahr El Ghazal-Aweil University has threatened to withdraw from the project.
According to the letter signed by the 5 members, mainly Architects and Engineers, construction of the fence and main gate started before they released the final design.
“We as the technical committee were not informed nor consulted about the launching of the fence and gate construction,” a part of the statement read.
The committee blasted that the ongoing fence construction does not conform to both architectural and structural designs.
Many people have raised concerns and questions as to why there is less progress at the construction site despite the huge financial contribution made by Aweil people, both within and outside the country.
Aweil family known as “TAF”, a social organization that initiated the project, expressed readiness to work towards transparency and accountability through compilation of comprehensive fundraiser report.
Last year, Aweil intellectuals conducted an event at Freedom Hall in Juba to raise fund to construct the public university in Aweil.
During the Juba event, over 100 million SSP including 40 million SSP from the office of the President of the Republic of South Sudan were pledged.
Vice President for Service Cluster, H.E Hussien Abdelbagi Akol, Security Advisor, Tut Kew and former Press Secretary Ateny Wek Ateny also pledged more than 2 million SSP each, to support the project.
In Northern Bahr El Ghazal state, the government initiated an idea to cut salaries of civil servant to fund the university project.