South Sudan Parliament In Chaos As Members Of Parliament Refuse To Listen To The New Budget

South Sudan National Legislative Assembly erupted in Chaos on Thursday Morning today after Members of Parliament denied the Finance minister to read the 2019/2020 budget.  

The reason to why the Finance Minister was denied chance to present the 2019/2020 budget is because the Members of Parliament were not paid some outstanding arrears. 

The Members of Parliament insisted that all outstanding arrears of over 6 months should be paid to all the civil servants. 

Last week on Friday council of ministers approved a raft draft of the budget of 208 billion pounds for the year 2019/2020.

When the finance minister stood to present the 2019/2020 budget for scrutiny he met with noise and boos.  

One Member of parliament said that “Mr. Speaker, the salaries for the budget of the financial year 2018/2019 have not been paid upto today. How can we debate the new bill yet the previous bill has not been accounted for.” 

Another Member of Parliament added that “In Juba, the salaries for 6 months have not been paid, while in the states the salaries for 7 months have also not been paid.” 

Other members of the parliament said that “We are telling the Minister of Finance that –if you are not able to do this job, please go home.”

After all the chaos in the parliament the speaker was left with no choice but to adjourn the session. 

More to follow shortly....