{"id":38642,"date":"2025-08-14T11:24:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T09:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/?p=38642"},"modified":"2025-08-14T11:24:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T09:24:47","slug":"parliament-adjourns-sitting-due-to-ministers-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/14\/parliament-adjourns-sitting-due-to-ministers-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliament adjourns sitting due to Ministers\u2019 Absence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Only 5 out of 35 National Ministers were present during the third ordinary sitting of the National Legislature | Photo Alan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Alan Clement<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) on Wednesday unanimously adjourned a sitting <\/em>after most Ministers failed to show up.<\/p>\n

The yesterday\u2019s sitting was meant to discuss President Salva Kiir\u2019s speech during the opening of the house last month.<\/p>\n

According to the members of the parliament Ministers were expected to attend the sitting since it was deliberation on President\u2019s speech that is more of policies.<\/p>\n

The absence of Ministers prompted Elizabeth Adut, Member of Parliament (MP) from Northern Bahr el Ghazal to raise a point of procedure, citing parliamentary regulations that mandate ministerial attendance during such deliberations.<\/p>\n

Adut retreated that despite an adequate quorum of lawmakers comprised of 285 members and 56 from the Council of States it was a must for Ministers to attend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 35 ministers in South Sudan but what we have here is the representation of only five ministries,\u201d said Elizabeth Adut.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the importance of the president\u2019s speech, I move that we adjourn the sitting and call for the rest of the ministers to attend,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Farouk Gatkuoth, Chief Whip of SPLM-IO, echoed the sentiment, warning against Parliament\u2019s perceived passiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has come out of the president\u2019s speech are policies, and the implementation of those policies is not to be done by the August House; they are meant to be implemented by the executive. And if the executive is absent, let\u2019s get to expose ourselves this time,\u201d Gatkuoth said.<\/p>\n

Deng Dau Deng however flagged procedural irregularities regarding the quorum and ministerial attendance seemingly explaining the absence of the ministers.<\/p>\n

While addressing the Speaker of parliament, he said, \u201cwhen you announced the quorum, it is attended as seen in Parliament today but there was no particular mention about the attendance of the ministers regarding this particular section.<\/p>\n

He added that a consensus was reached in parliament where the Speaker gave a directive to one of the ministers to inform the other ministers to attended saying it is unprocedural and called for clearer communication from the Clerk\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Minister of Environment, Josephine Naphon also reiterated the importance of ministerial presence, while the Speaker reminded that the president\u2019s speech reflected reports from all ministries. \u201cWhen parliament is discussing, it is in order that the ministers should be around to answer any questions,\u201d she said, adding that their presence also showed<\/p>\n

Minister of Environment Josephine Napon also reiterated the importance of ministerial presence, while the Speaker reminded that the president\u2019s speech reflected reports from all ministries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen parliament is discussing, it is in order that the ministers should be around to answer any questions,\u201d she said, adding that their presence also show respect for the president\u2019s address and subsequently adjourned the presentation and deliberation on the president\u2019s speech until a later date which will be communicated accordingly.<\/p>\n

The Ministers of Livestock and Fisheries, Culture, Museums and National Heritage, Environment and Forestry, Public Service and Human Resource Development, and Deputy minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs were present in the parliament.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alan Clement The Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) on Wednesday unanimously adjourned a sitting after most Ministers failed to show up. The yesterday\u2019s sitting was meant to discuss President Salva Kiir\u2019s speech during the opening of the house last month. According to the members of the parliament Ministers were[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38642","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38647,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38642\/revisions\/38647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}