Ex-Minister of Finance penned details to Speaker on Dura Scandal

Juba, Ater Garang Ariath.

The Former Minister of Finance Economic and Planning Kuol Athian Mawien wrote about four pages letter to the South Sudan National Legislative Assembly Speaker James Wani Igga detailed the inexhaustible debate across nationwide over Dura scandal.

The letter attained by the Citizen Newspaper expresses the background of Dura Program which was initiated by the Ministry of Finance Economic and Planning in the former regional government of Southern Sudan to addressed the experienced of food shortages in namely states, Northern- Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap , Lakes, Western-Bahr el Ghazal, Western Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria and some part of Jonglei.

Mawien asserted that this problem of food shortage was largely due to prolonged droughts which affected farming activities, national disaster such as floods.

The internal conflicts, poor infrastructure including traditional means of production has limited the food productivity capacity of the people heighten by the presence of landmines and unexploded ordnances on the arable land which discourage potential farmers  and investors from embark on large scale farming, he stresses.

He pointed that the government was not prioritized the agriculture in 2005 only reconstruction, resettlement security and capacity building of public institutions were on top which leads people to continued to rely on largely on humanitarian food intervention for international agencies especially the World Food Program (WFP) up to now the situation has not change much, hunger is still a common occurrence in many states.

He added that in an attempt to redress the issue of the persistent drought and famine in South Sudan the Ministry of Finance Economic and Planning came up with the food security program 2008 because we were propelled to intervene due to reports of acute hunger in those states.

He explained that on his capacity as the former Minister of Finance acted in accordance with section 5(1)-(2) of Appropriation Bill 2008 to remedy the situation because it is responsibility of government to ensure food security to its people by availing food and ensuring its safe storage.

The former Minister still maintained that the defaulters were the governors and the contractors in the saga.