By Ijoo Bosco
Eastern Equatoria state transitional legislative assembly is taking a three-month break after completing their third session in order to meet with their constituencies’ members.
The third session ended with 36 sittings since September.
The state August House members have only managed to pass a tax rate bill into law out of all their sitting and summoning of the state government officials due to the prevailing challenges going on in the state.
And now the lawmakers have gone on recess without passing the state’s main fiscal budget for the year 2023/2024 citing some irregularities in the budget that need scrutiny and plan to prioritize it for deliberation and passing once they return from recess.
Speaking during the closing of the third session in Torit on Thursday, the speaker Maira Janus, advised the parliamentarians to take the initiative to reach their own constituencies in order to explain the government policies more especially on the Revitalized peace agreement process and the upcoming election in the late 2024.
Speaker Maira said the parliamentarians should endeavor to listen to the concerns of the local population in their constituencies and present them to the government for the possible way forward once they return from their areas.
He further urged the members of parliament to avoid fixing hate speech online and also called on them to collaboratively work together despite their political party agenda.
Meanwhile, Eastern Equatoria state Governor Louis Lobong Lojore called on the parliamentarians to fully use the opportunity to encourage the local citizens in their constituencies to cooperate with law enforcement agencies to help identify criminals and be arrested to face the courts.
Lobong also encouraged the lawmakers to help mobilize the local communities to make sure feeder roads are open for the easy delivery of services.
He also calls on lawmakers to contribute to nation-building by fully participating in improving the economy of the country through increasing productivity in terms of food and businesses.