By Bida Elly David
South Sudan National Legislative Assembly’s specialised committee Chairpersons demand for special means of mobility to facilitate their movement.
Chairpersons of the specialised committees raised their concern during parliamentary sitting on presentation of the national election act, on Monday.
Speaking on behalf of the rest of colleagues, Hon. Kuol Deng questioned why the committee chairpersons and committee members do not have cars, despite their tireless duties.
He said they usually hire motorists on personal finances to run House activities, particularly when tackling referred bills for scrutiny.
“Since we joined this parliament, we have chairs and deputies in different committees. I am still wondering why they don’t have cars, yet they tirelessly do a lot about the bills,” he said.
He demanded that the parliament administration clarify the reasons behind imposing much work on committees without considering facilitations.
The legislator demanded to know whether the bottleneck that hinders committee chairpersons from being given cars was from the Ministry of Finance or within the Assembly.
The MPs, who cry over heavy roles, emphasized that the August House represents the whole country and that legislators should be valued.
“This is a serious and burning issue that needs to be taken into account. MPs are the leaders of this Country, and this thing needs to be addressed urgently.”
He said the issue of mobility is constitutionally found in the act and should be treated with care.
In response, Nathaniel Oyet, the first deputy speaker of the R-TNLA, said the cars for the leadership and members are provided for in the emolument act, which was passed in the August House.
However, the administration has been pursuing the question of the leadership car with numerous challenges due to financial constraints.
The first deputy speaker echoed that the parliament has been engaging with the executive through the ministry of finance to access the money.
“If finance was available, I am sure by now the leadership should have their cars because it is a matter of going to the market and buying these vehicles, but we don’t have finance in the parliament,” he cried.
He said they have since been struggling to get the budget unveiled, and he urged the house to be patient.