SOUTHERN SUDANESE LEGISLATURE GOES ON FORCED

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001325 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/SPG E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2016 TAGS: PGOV EFIN PINR SU SUBJECT: SOUTHERN SUDANESE LEGISLATURE GOES ON FORCED RECESS; GROWING CULTURE OF CORRUPTION Classified By: CGJ RWhitehead for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D) ¶1. (C) Summary. CG talked at length with South Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) MP Bashir Bendi (protect) on May 30 to discuss the announcement that the SSLA would go into an unscheduled three month recess. Bendi blamed SSLA Speaker James Wani Igga for peremptorily closing the SSLA to prevent MPs bent on playing a watchdog role from bringing potentially embarrassing issues to the floor. Bendi listed various examples of corruption, descried the GoSS lack of action against those responsible, and said that he would resign his post rather than be complicit in the failure of the GoSS to meet its obligations to the people of South Sudan. End summary. -------------- What Recess? -------------- ¶2. (C) A clearly vexed Bendi noted that once again the Speaker had cancelled a scheduled sitting of the SSLA and compounded this by announcing that the SSLA would go on recess for three months. Bendi noted that the SSLA has considered only one piece of GoSS sponsored legislation since the budget bill, and no other official bills had come to the Business Committee over which Bendi presides. According to the bylaws of the SSLA, the Speaker should during such a hiatus bring to the floor legislation or motions proposed by individual MPs. Instead, he had declared a recess. -------------- Sweeping the Dirt under the Rug -------------- ¶3. (C) Bendi said that the Speaker,s motive was no mystery: he was intent on protecting the powerful in the SPLM from being called to account for illicit activities. He described a growing culture of corruption in the GoSS that, combined with an inability to deliver on commitments to the population, was eroding the popular mandate of the GoSS/SPLM. CG requested specifics. Bendi replied that Minister of Cabinet Affairs Yac had taken large commissions on contracts to renovate the Presidency and the ministries. Finance Minister Arthur Chol had purchased an expensive new residence in Australia. Bendi added Regional Affairs Minister Nhial Deng Nhial had resigned partly in disgust over corruption and waste, including the excessive payment of per diem to GoSS officials. ¶4. (C) Bendi continued that those with reform in mind were anxiously waiting to see if Kiir would act on a rumored shake-up in the GoSS Council of Ministers. He said that during the April SPLM celebrations, Presidental Advisor, Khalid Mansour had told Kiir that Yac, Chol and a third unnamed minister should be removed for corruption, and Minister of Police and Security Awet for lack of competence. -------------- And Who Will Watch the Watcher? -------------- ¶5. (C) CG said that he was aware of extant rumors but cautioned that the rumor mill is Juba runs overtime ) one must have proof to back accusations. Bendi said that he would shortly provide the address and selling price of Chol,s new house in Australia and added that he had documents proving that the leadership of the SSLA, the purported watchdog of the GoSS executive, had misused funds. He said that a number of MPs had asked the Speaker to leave old furniture in the Assembly building until after renovations by the Chinese contractors. Instead, Bendi said, pointing at his new desk and office furniture, the Speaker and his Deputy had ordered the contractor to provide 15 new sets of furniture for their own offices of those of the committee chairpersons before the renovations began, and two generators for the houses of the Speaker and his Deputy. Bendi said that the bill, which he had seen, came to USD 700,000, but when MPs privately priced the furniture in Khartoum, they discovered that each set cost less than USD 5,000. The generators were estimated at less than USD 50,000 each, and even with transport the total came to less than USD 300,000. Where was the rest? ¶6. (C) Bendi produced a letter to the Allan Duncan KPMG Office in Nairobi from the GoSS Under Secretary of Finance instructing that KPMG act on a letter from the Clerk of the SSLA to disburse to the SSLA Chairperson of the Development, Economy and Finance Committee the sum of USD 55,400 -- USD 2,000 for the cost of a minor surgical procedure and USD 53,400 for 15 days &per diem and other expenses.8 Bendi KHARTOUM 00001325 002 OF 002 said that lavish per diem had become the norm, with the senior SSLA leadership drawing USD 2,000 per day despite specific language in the budget bill calling on the GoSS to reduce travel and per diem outlays. -------------- Growing Disaffection in the Ranks -------------- ¶7. (C) Bendi said that he and like minded reformers were determined that the SSLA should discharge its role as the watchdog over the executive. He said that public disaffection was growing daily over the poor performance of GoSS ministries in delivering any palpable help to the people. The Speaker,s refusal to allow MPs to bring such issues to the floor for public discussion was undercutting the role of the SSLA and harming the reputations of the MPs. Bendi declared that he was prepared to resign if it became clear that the SSLA was intended to be nothing more than a rubber stamp for the SPLM. -------------- Conclusion -------------- ¶8. (C) The Juba rumor mill indeed runs overtime, and we caution against taking all accusations of corruption at face value absent corroborating truth. This said, there is ample evidence of increasing corruption and mismanagement, a corrosion that the GoSS can ill afford to ignore. It is essential for the GoSS to move expeditiously to empower the independent Accountability and Anti-Corruption Commissions to play their designated roles, including watching the putative watchers in the SSLA. STEINFELD