Revenue Authority officials stole SSP24 billion in just 3 months – report

JUBA – A report has claimed that officials working with South Sudan National Revenue Authority diverted 24 billion South Sudanese Pounds from non-oil revenues into their private accounts between January and April, a lawmaker said.

Juol Nhomngek Daniel, a member of the reconstituted transitional parliament representing Cueibet County of Lakes State told journalists that the vice is rampant in the tax body.

“In January, there was 7 billion SSP which was collected within one month by National Revenue Authority and in February there was 5 billion SSP and again 5 billion was collected in March,”  Daniel told journalists on Monday, citing a report as his evidence.

“The money was raised up to 7 billion SSP in April. You have seen the money collected in the last four months but right now, we don’t have money. Where does that money go?”  Daniel asked.

According to Daniel, a lawmaker on the SPLM-IO ticket, 89% of monthly non-oil revenue collections go into individuals’ pockets.

“We have discovered that there are individuals collecting taxes as tax collectors. There are deducting a lot of percentages and when you calculate, you get the percentage being deducting from National Revenue to be 89%,” Daniel said.

“Now that nation is going with 11 percentages which may be less than 1 billion and the rest of the money goes into private pockets.”

He said South Sudan has enough resources but is mismanaged.

“The resources are being mismanaged and mismanagement is not like lack of resources. We need to differentiate the two. The resources are been mismanaged and the people don’t know this,” he said.

In September 2021, the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said a “staggering” amount of money and other wealth had been diverted from public coffers and resources – more than $73m since 2018, with almost $39m stolen during a period of less than two months.