Gov’t told to publish names of companies contracted to deliver aid to flood-affected citizens

JUBA – South Sudan government has been urged by an activist to publish the names of 25 companies that it contracted to deliver government aid to flood-affected citizens in the world’s youngest country and to also disclose the size assistance each company has been tasked to deliver.

The government announced last week that it has allocated at least $16.7 million to aid those affected by floods in most parts of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and the Equatoria regions. It then said that 25 national companies have been contracted to delivery the government aid.

The government however just mentioned a few of the companies and there are now worries among the public that the companies might include those with links to senior government officials.

In a statement, the Executive Director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) Edmund Yakani, called on the government to publish the names of the companies that it contracted to deliver the aid to the communities affected by floods and to disclose the size of aid each company is tasked to deliver.

“CEPO is urging the government to disclose names of the 25 companies contracted to deliver humanitarian assistance financed by the government to the victims of the floods across the country for the sake of transparency and accountability,” Yakani said in a statement to Sudans Post.

“Further we and the public wish to know the type of the humanitarian assistance and the size of the assistance that each company was tasked to deliver and where specifically in the country,” the prominent activist added.

Yakani said “the implications of the floods on our communities is really national disaster that requires serious and urgent government responses, support from the able citizens and assistance from the humanitarian community to the affected communities.”

“The floods implications this year is total heavy and destructive on the communities living in low lands across the country. The implications are worse on the population of persons with disabilities, children and the old aged persons in the communities affected by the floods,” Yakani stressed.

He further said that his organization “will be coordinating with the ministry of humanitarian and disaster management the citizenship floods mitigation initiative.”