Government lacks budget to subsidize prices of goods in the market

By Awan Achiek

The National Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Bak Barnaba Chol said they lack budget to help them intervene in the market as prices of essential goods continue to soar.

He said the ministry of finance is working with Juba City Council to ensure that prices of essential goods are regulated.

“We are witnessing  skyrocketing prices of essential goods such as medicines, food items and other essential goods, the government has not been able to provide subsidies due lack of sufficient budget,”  Chol said during a joint press conference held with the Governor of the Bank of South Sudan in Juba on Saturday.

Chol also said they are working to downsize the number of staff at the ministry of finance in order to cut costs.

The ministry of finance employs over 1,400 staff.

“We first want to restructure, make screening and the next appointment will be from the ministry of finance, this is not because we don’t have qualified staff at the ministry of finance, we do have but restructuring is important,” Chol said.

The South Sudanese Pound is trading with the U.S dollar at it’s lowest point at 19,000 SSP in the black market, since winning independence from Sudan.

Chol said they plan to redeploy some of the accountants and cashiers, as well as downsizing staff that are not essential at the ministry.

“Critically the ministry of finance and planning is overstaffed. I have more than 1,400 staff, the crowd you see at the ministry are not only people who are coming for financial claims, among them are my employees because they don’t have space to sit,” he said.

He said he is not going to terminate their employment or contracts, but they will not get offices.

“I am not going to terminate their employment or their contracts but I would say those who are capable and have been kept outside office, will get offices and those who have been in offices but redundant and ineffective will again wait a bit until we finish the transformational agenda,” Chol disclosed.

Chol said the ministry of finance is prioritizing investment in education, health and clean drinking water.

“We want to invest more in education, we want to invest more in health and we want to invest more in clean drinking water,” he said.

In addition, he said roads will also be rehabilitated during the dry season.