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