South Sudan sets up panel to verify Ugandan traders

The government of South Sudan has established a committee to verify the authenticity of Ugandan traders, claiming compensation for supplying goods to South Sudan before and after the 2013 civil war.

In 2010, the government of Uganda signed a memorandum of understanding with the South Sudan government under which  Uganda would compensate traders who lost property or were not paid as a result of the civil war that broke out in South Sudan.

The funds would be paid as a loan to the South Sudanese government. However, since then, only 10 companies have benefited from the compensation funds that amount to about $56m.

To sort out the anomaly, MPs such as Mohammed Nsereko (Kampala Central) raised concerns to Parliament about the payment, to which the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga instituted a select committee, chaired by Kyankwanzi district woman MP Ann Maria Nankabirwa, to investigate the payment by the ministry of finance.

Finance minister Matia Kasaija, recently told MPs that the government had in another phase approved the payment of sh40b to compensate 10 companies.

The MPs however expressed dissatisfaction that these were the same companies that had benefited from the earlier payment.

To ascertain the rightful beneficiaries, the committee which has been camped in South Sudan since last week, petitioned Anthony Makana, the speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly of South Sudan and the finance minister to verify the traders.

It is as result of this petition, that South Sudan's deputy minister of finance and planning, Goc Makauc Mayol, on Monday told the Ugandan delegation that a select committee had been set up to verify the traders.

"Our direction is now clear, the three ministers have agreed to form a committee to look into issues of traders. The ministry of defence had already submitted its representatives and ours will be ready today (Monday)," Makauc said.

"The committee we have formed will sit, strategise and call you (MPs) up with possible queries. Whatever the committee will come up with, will be brought to the attention of the three ministries to take a decision," he added.

The South Sudan based verification committee is a five man committee comprised of officials from the ministry of finance and planning, the ministry of defence and veteran affairs and the ministry of trade industry and East African affairs.

The Ugandan MPs led by Nankabirwa implored the verification committee to fast-track the process for traders who fall into Category A.

Those under Category A are traders who claim to have been at the level of payment, some had received cheques that bounced, others had bank guarantees that failed, while some received partial payment from the government of South Sudan.

"Our humble prayer and request is that you check out faster those whose claims had reached the level of payment so that we guide the government of Uganda accordingly," Nankabirwa said.

She noted that the verification committee will, however, require ample time to thoroughly assess the documents of other traders who supplied different government agencies.

"We agree that with traders who signed contracts with ministry of defence and other government agencies, your committee needs time to do thorough checks," she added.

The Ugandan team furnished the verification committee with documents of claimants approved by Ugandan's trade ministry.

The committee hopes to obtain the verified lists in order for Parliament to appropriate traders' claims in the 2019/20 national budget.

"Our concern as a committee is that we get the final list that will be submitted to the government of Uganda so that Parliament uses the committee report to appropriate funds for the payment of traders," Herbert Edmund Ariko, the  Soroti Municipality MP said.