By Deng Ghai Deng<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ongoing economic crisis in South Sudan has escalated to a dire situation where members of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) are reportedly dying over lack of remunerations.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThey cannot afford medication due to prolonged unpaid salary arrears and suspended medical allowances,\u201d spokesperson of the national Assembly, Oliver Mori Benjamin has said.<\/p>\n Oliver Mori Benjamin, Chairperson of the Specialized Committee for Information revealed on Friday that an average of one lawmaker has died every three months over the past four years.<\/p>\n The cause of these deaths has been linked to the lack of access to necessary medical treatments as a result of unpaid salaries and halted medical allowances.<\/p>\n “This parliament is losing a member every three or four months because they have fallen sick but cannot afford treatment abroad. These are only for the members of parliament to leave alone about their families,” Mori stated during a press briefing.<\/p>\n Each TNLA member is entitled to a medical allowance of $30,000 annually. However, Mori revealed that lawmakers have only received half of this amount\u2014$15,000\u2014over the past four years. This significant reduction in funds has severely impacted their ability to seek proper medical care.<\/p>\n The parliament has taken action by summoning the national Minister of Finance, Marial Dognrin, and the Commissioner General of the Revenue Authority, Africano Mande, to appear before the lawmakers on Monday to provide explanations for the delays in salary payments, which have now extended beyond nine months.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Minister of Finance to come alongside the Commissioner General of the Revenue Authority\u2014both of them should appear in one sitting so that they elaborate in detail on their plans to clear the salary arrears for nine months,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe parliament is also concerned to know from the commissioner of the Revenue Authority how much he is collecting per month. What we hear is that the collection from non-oil revenue has surpassed one from last year and so on, but people don\u2019t feel the effects\u2014nobody will give the answer except these two gentlemen,\u201d Mori added.<\/p>\n The economic instability has placed immense strain on South Sudan’s governance system, with lawmakers struggling to fulfil their roles due to financial insecurity.<\/p>\n Mori said the non-payment of salaries and allowances has not only impacted their health but also undermined the legislative process and overall governance in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment, some of our members volunteer to use public transport or sometimes even come on foot to attend the sittings here in the parliament,\u201d Mori added.<\/p>\n The government has yet to provide a comprehensive response to the crisis, and concerns grow about both future of the legislative body which is integral to the functioning of the country\u2019s fragile democratic institutions and the well-being of citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Deng Ghai Deng Ongoing economic crisis in South Sudan has escalated to a dire situation where members of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) are reportedly dying over lack of remunerations. \u201cThey cannot afford medication due to prolonged unpaid salary arrears and suspended medical allowances,\u201d spokesperson of the[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Oliver-Mori-Benjamin-Chairperson-of-the-Specialized-Committee-for-Information-in-the-TNLA.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27011"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27015,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27011\/revisions\/27015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}