By Charles K Mark
Juba City Council decried the numerous challenges it faces, especially in terms of resources and resolved to improve revenue collection policies.
The city mayor, Flora Gabriel Modi said during opening of the Council’s Legislative Assembly, that the administration will increase revenue collections.
“With the policies, we shall work hard to raise income or taxes so that we can go and have money for all our projects,” she said while addressing the legislative council.
Mrs. Modi said she hopes to engage the directors with the help of advisors to boost revenue collection.
The City Mayor pledged to implement a policy statement with a vision of a strong social-economic foundation, aiming to build a strong institution and administrative system that is generally capable of facilitating the programmes of the council.
‘The overall objective of Juba City is to promote and encourage development at all levels of the council and threaten the social and economic development of the committees within Juba City,” she stated.
Juba City Council aims to embark on construction and maintenance of bridges and culverts as well as lighting the streets.
The Council also maintains continuing with demolition of structures built on unauthorized spaces, including those on roads, football grounds and government-reserved land.
Meanwhile, the legislative council envisaged market development, reorganization, and transformation, including the completion of Juba Town Mall, Malakia Bari Market, and resuming cladding across the city.
It also stressed engaging South Sudan Urban Water Corporation in identifying and establishing fair water prices and support JICA in water connectivity into residential areas.
“We wanted to improve revenue collection in the city council in order to generate sufficient funds for the projects and operations,” the mayor emphasized.
She pledged to ensure mandatory reporting of finance and projects on a regular basis by block council directors and the director of environment and sanitation, among other units.
“We’ll share it together with you, especially the finance reports with the city legislative council, so that they know our activities and how the operation is going within the city council, and they will also see our budget, and they will monitor whatever activities are going on within Juba City,” she noted.
Mayor Flora promised to work hand in hand with the legislators to ensure the security and safety of residents, provide protection on ongoing development projects, and crack down on Niggas, Toronto, and robberies.
The Juba City Council Mayor was responding to some of the concerns raised by the City Council Speaker, Madam Dina Keji John.
Keji, who mentioned a few achievements of the councilors during their recess research, also pointed out a number of challenges that she said needed urgent attention.
One major challenge was the inadequate budget to run the programmes of the city council, including assembly sittings.
Keji said the environment of the city council does not motivate the legislators to conduct their normal duties.