Political Coordination Needed In South Sudan

"People of South Sudan did not see serious political coordination in the last five years. Many individuals within given authorities played political roles that had resulted into democratic failure and political inefficiency".

Political activities carried out by executive, legislative, and judiciary branches in all governmental levels in Southern Sudan need a serious coordination. Different types of coordination are needed in various institutional levels within the political system that play a role in the overall capacity of improving political system. The aim is to produce harmonious adjustments and results, which will gradually evolve into good governing system if Southerners are serious about democratic transformation and good governance in the future, should south become independent in 2011.

President Kiir’s recent restriction on GOSS ministers’ travel abroad was long-awaited one by Southerners as part of the coordination aspect of the governance system. It does not exist anywhere else in the world to have more than ten ministers travelling abroad to foreign countries at the same time. We have seen this during the last five years. These unnecessary trips have cost Southern Sudan a huge amount of money for the accommodations and other expenses for those ministers who have been travelling overseas. The funny thing is that this money was part of mismanagement of public funds. On the other hand, some quarters would argue that these unnecessary spending contributed to corruption practices in the past.

According to President Kiir, “ministers on mission must submit a written report to the Council of Ministers not later than one week after their return from the mission. The report shall reflect the activity undertaken during the mission, achievements made, business transacted, the value or usefulness of such mission to Southern Sudan as well as recommendations for follow-up.”

These directives were required long time ago when GOSS was formed in 2005. If we had these directives in place before, the mismanagement of public funds should have ceased and use the wasted money for social services in South Sudan. This restriction is too late, but necessary step in assuring Southerners of at least transparency and accountability of the new administration under SPLM/Kiir leadership.

For any social institution to succeed, depends on management framework policy (plans, priorities implementation, evaluation, and monitoring). Such management framework policy was needed in South Sudan during the last five years and still needed now at this critical period. The question is who does it and how do you do it given the complexity of the political processes in the Third World and South Sudan in particular when those in charge of the political power are part and parcel of political inefficiency.

People of South Sudan did not see serious political coordination in the last five years. Many individuals within given authorities played political roles that had resulted into democratic failure and political inefficiency. These factors led to widespread of corruption and lack of services improvement delivery.
Measuring success: How do you measure a success? Well, social, cultural, economical, and political institutions measure success based on the following things:

Identifying key programs and services. First step to implementing the service improvement should be to identify the key services to be included in the service improvement. The following criteria are among those to be used for identifying programs and services included in the service improvement: a) reach a significant number or group of communities; b) are related to the top priorities identified by federal government; c) and/or involve direct interaction with communities at large, with institutions, or with significant groups. In this case, communities in the South Sudan need to be consulted in their respective Counties, Payams, and Bumas when it comes to social problems and issues and how they need to be uplifted politically and socially.

Reporting to Parliament and Southerners.
The body, if an appointed one already exists, should report to Parliaments at all level of governments and individual departmental reports to Parliament (political departmental report on plans and priorities and the departmental performance reports) should be the central vehicles for reporting on the targets and results of the improving services and overall progress. In democratic countries, all political departments are always required to report on progress made and specific guidelines are developed and evaluated to see the progress made.

Quarterly evaluation and adjustment.
Political institutions in South Sudan should report to local, state, and federal parliaments quarterly as an evaluation of the overall progress in the public sectors. These reports should tell if plans and priorities have been implemented or been put into action. This is how companies and other institutions succeed in their businesses. Plans and priorities are developed and be put into action. Fixed period of time is always set for it to be evaluated for the progress made as well. Once an evaluation is carried out, the result, whether negative or positive, this gives clear indication of where the company or given institution is heading, for example, in terms of progress or failure.

Political activities carried out on daily basis by the executive branch (council of ministers) need coordination within the executive branch itself. Each ministry should always report to the presidency and councils of ministers as well. These reports should focus on the achievements made, challenges, and recommendations with strategic plans by the ministry itself so that given budget is used on programs and projects wisely and not on inappropriate approaches and management.

On the other hand, legislative branch needs to be active in doing what is expected of them in passing the laws after deliberation of issues and motions in the parliament. How do you make laws? Laws are results of issues brought into public attention that need public condemnation and enforcement.

Southern Sudan is a vast region and this means that SSLA needs to invest in public issues by researching and studying social problems facing our communities. For South Sudan to have genuine public law and order depends on Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) seriousness in researching, studying, tabling motions/passing laws, and enforcement of the laws. This branch needs to be working with the executive branch so that they both share some important information and to better coordinate their political activities as well.

The judiciary branch (the courts, police, prison/correction department) who interpret the laws need to be working within the system that is accountable and transparent in dealing with the justice system in Southern Sudan so that disputes are dealt within reasonable time and accordingly. This means fair trials within a limited period of time. Bribery should be considered as illegal if such practices still exist in the South. The selection of judges at all level of governments should be open so that right judges are selected based on their experiences and qualifications. This branch needs to report to its ministry in charge of legal and constitutional affairs in GOSS and two other levels of governments as well. And if they do so, the legal justice system will be running according to the rule of law and everybody would be happy with justice system itself and therefore, people attitudes will change gradually and be abiding by the rule of law in the long run.

In regard to state and counties administrations, a serious coordination of their activities is badly needed since they are the implementers of the social programs and projects. Whatever federal government gives to state and local governments for development ought to be audited annually to evaluate if original plans have been implemented or not. The federal government/GOSS should train capable auditors to conduct this task annually. I will stop short to recommend training of independent auditors to better carry out their job, but South Sudan has not reached that level yet to have independent auditors and other independent bodies in that matter. But for now, South needs to have capable auditors to tackle this financial embezzlement throughout the region.

The counties commissioners should report monthly to state governments and state governments should report to Federal/GOSS quarterly as a management framework policy for the political activities and progress made. This is to ensure good governance in service improvement delivery. If we don’t do this coordination, if anybody is left to runs his/her show in the South, the overall system will collapse in the long run. And if we let this happen, then, democratic failure will result into political anarchy and anarchy system will become the norm in the region.

In conclusion, Political activities carried out by executive, legislative, and judiciary branches in all governmental levels in Southern Sudan need a serious coordination. The aim is to produce harmonious adjustments and results, which will gradually evolve into good governing system if Southerners are serious about democratic transformation and good governance in the future, should south become independent in 2011.