From last issue
Returning to our topic is there a way out of our current economic afflictions?
Before answering it, allow me to ask a few sample questions concerning some Departments: Will the Department of Health at the end of their tenure in 2024 say that they had delivered a modern healthcare system through preventive and curative techniques? Similarly, will the Department of Roads and Bridges at the end of its tenure in 2024 say they had built a network of modern roads and bridges connecting the whole Country? Nonetheless, will the Department of Trade and Industry at the end of their tenure in 2024 say they had created a conducive environment that had resulted in the springing up of local entrepreneurs to replace the foreign entrepreneurs apart from the introduction of manufacturing and industrial production? Will also, the Department of Petroleum at the end of their tenure in 2024, say they had marketed the Petroleum to the best of our abilities and had deposited that money to the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance? Will nonetheless, the Department of Mining at the end of their tenure in 2024 say they had made contracts with the best Companies who have the know-how so that the minerals benefit all the South Sudanese? Equally, will the Department of Water Resources at the end of their tenure in 2024 say we had purified all the potable water available to all the South Sudanese in all the ten (10) States of South Sudan; Finally, will the Department of Finance and Economic Planning of the Revitalized Peace Agreement of 2018 at the end of their tenure in 2024 say that they had made financial resources available to all the Departments of the Government?
To answer those questions
It is easy, in the next few days for the two Poles (North Pole and South Pole) to reverse their current positions (North become South and South become North) than the signatories of the Revitalized Peace Agreement of 2018 to answer yes – affirmatively.
Why is that so hard to answer agreeably?
My doubts emanate from the Draft Budget Proposal (2022/2023) I saw some time back from one of the MPs of the South Sudan National Legislative Assembly. During my quick scan, my eyes got fixed on a lump sum amount which was written Operation Cost.
During my inquiry, I learned that it was the whole money for Departmental Services. I then concluded from that sample of the Budget, since it was not put in detail, it is left for the head of the Department what type of services to spend that money on. With no budget expenditure details spelled out in advance using budget item codes as a guideline for planned expenditure – there is no system for expenditure in the budget – only haphazard expenditure which is not in the interest of the Department concerned. I then deduced that there was something wrong from the core – which is the planning level.
The detailed budget items’ codes are the summary of the whole Departmental Plan put into the mathematical language of money because every budget activity needs money. With no money, there is no activity in the Department.
Looking at it in reverse, one will definitely find the written descriptions: of the time period that will be required to do the job; the number of people that will be needed by the Department to execute the assignment; the way, the work will be done and what specific work is needed to achieve the Departmental Objectives. Those activities need money which is the detailed budget items’ codes that are intended to be strictly followed.
A lot be desired
That activity which was written as Operation Cost for the whole Department(s) – there is a lot of reading from it. It could mean, those who planned South Sudan National Budget 2022/2023 were not professionals whatever academic qualifications they may be holding. Or it could mean that it was dictated to them from above to do that very poor and clumsy quality work – which puts their qualifications to even more question marks? Or they might have done it so to satisfy their vested interest – which is even more dangerous than the first two.
What is next, after failure to follow the strict budget rules mentioned above?
It is the disaster in the waiting that comes next. In a simple language we are just like a farmer that refuses to put aside some seeds from the current harvest for next season cultivation period and either sells or consume all the agricultural produce of that year hoping that the cultivation seeds could be freely available from the market or from one of the neighbors – which may end in disappointment. In our comparative case, the seeds are the Oil flow which is being sold at the International market so as to enable us currently to buy all household needs from other countries through foreign trade. In that respect, our crude Oil could stop being sold at international market for reasons out of our control. A critical example is the war raging in Sudan where our Oil pipelines pass through to Port Sudan (of Sudan) – if the war continuous for a very long time, the export of Oil could abruptly stop. Its end result is the collapse of the whole economy of South Sudan – with no warning in advance.
Mind adjustment needed
Unless we readjust our mind set: from our current flight bearings which is travelling towards a wrong direction; so as to follow the correct path which is being followed by the rest of the world on the Planet Earth because our cruising ship called South Sudan will definitely run out of fuel one day and crushed to the ground with no survival on it. In other words, to repeat our end will come when we are unable to sell our Crude Oil at International market.
Summing up
With no determination to resuscitate past Business and Service Institutions mentioned earlier? With no visionary forecast for redirecting all available resources, be they Oil or raw minerals still on the ground towards establishing business institutions which will satisfy most of our household needs? The probabilities are that we may get extinct from the Planet Earth as a people who called themselves South Sudanese. There are historical examples to show that: where are the Carthaginians who historically occupied what is now Tunis in North Africa? The current occupants of Tunisia which was originally called Carthage came from the Middle East which used to be called Asia Minor in Historical Books. Where are the Napatans who originally occupied part of what is now Sudan which was North of Khartoum? They have also been replaced by those from the Middle East.
It is a general knowledge that a very sizeable number of the current South Sudan citizens who were at the front line bordering the war planners of Khartoum ‘endured the brunt and fury of the might of the Islamic-led Arab North’ could have been extinct after the famine of 1988 when an estimated half a million (500,000. -) people perished in their houses and along the railway line searching for food. It would have not stopped there with the first sizeable numbers. Other group numbers would have followed the trend of one group at a time.
In a historical turnabout of events, the Ethnic European powers with some of their allies at that time intervened to stop the Ethnic-Arabs of Sudan’s policy of refusing access to food markets to the South Sudanese citizens by introducing relief food to the most vulnerable people at the time when the war was raging on. The famine would have continued to repeat itself until the end for all those who currently called themselves South Sudanese.
They eventually launched Operation Lifeline Sudan (abbreviated OLS) for food and non-food items to save innocent lives that were in real jeopardy.
Concluding
This time, being an Independent Country called South Sudan we are alone. There is no way an outside world people could come and help the Country whose people have programmed themselves to exit from the planet Earth through the awkward National Plan mentioned earlier.
Putting my last question have we accepted to be extinct as a people who are currently occupying a geographical area called South Sudan from the Planet Earth? If you have not accepted to exit from the Planet Earth put in your inputs how small, it may be.
In the end, all the small inputs here and there will definitely add up to a very big input. Failing to do that, our current downward slide towards vanishing from the Planet Earth which is measured by the continued weakness of our SSP Pound towards the US$ Dollar will be unstoppable. In that connection, I do believe that we have the power to stop the looming danger which is visible on our horizon.
Our joined actions are needed now, more than ever before. It is a service not only for the current generations but also for the generations that will come thereafter.
The author can be reached via Tel: 0914256908, 0922761025; Email: Josephlang2020@gmail.com,