South Sudan oil minister gets tougher on foreign employees

JUBA – South Sudan’s petroleum minister Puot Kang Chol has taken a critical step in the approval process of foreign prospective employees wanting to work in the oil field.

In a letter dated 19/04/2022, Kang ordered the Ministry of Labour to seek his approval before issuing work permit to expatriates.

“I’m hereby requesting for your usual cooperation and understanding of your esteemed office to make it mandatory for all foreign partners’ secondees applying for a work permit to produce a proof of their secondment by the Ministry of petroleum as a prerequisite for obtaining a work permit approval from the Ministry of Labor,” the letter read in part.

Speaking in an interview, Minister of Labour James Hoth Mai said he received the letter but was still analysing it.

“We have received that letter and we are analysing that letter because we don’t know the foreigners working in this country,” Hoth said as quoted by Eye Radio Thursday.

Mr. Hoth said a similar criterion was already being followed by the ministry when it comes to issuing work permit.

“We are relying on the line ministry and the line institutions; this is the same thing with those who are working in the oil sector. We have to get approval from the medical council and without that we don’t give a work permit,” he said.

Hoth said it was time the government considers even the medical statuses of prospective foreign employees intending to work in the country.

“We are controlling whoever comes, the foreigners who come to South Sudan must get a work permit, we have to take big forms that take everything even including the medical status of the individual who is coming to this country, and so it’s a normal practice,” he said.