Three South Sudanese officials today declined to explain a discrepancy of $33 million between the approved amount for a contract and the actual value of the contract signed between the Ministry of Information and a Chinese company.

In the year 2013 the Council of Ministers of approved an amount of $18 million for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to finance its digital TV project, but the ministry agreed to pay Chinese company ZTE nearly three times that much for the project, $51 million. 

By law, parliament is the competent body to authorize spending by the ministries, but in practice the Council of Ministers exercises a similar function, approving extraordinary expenditures and directing the Finance Ministry.

Minister of Cabinet Affairs Martin Elia Lomuro today was asked about the approval for the Digital TV Project – issued on 11 April 2013 on letterhead of his ministry – and the discrepancy between the approved amount and the contracted amount.

Lomuro refused to discuss the matter saying, “Call the Ministry of Information... that’s their work.”

When told that the approval for the contract had come from the Council of Ministers, Lomuro replied, “The Council of Ministers makes its approval based on the request of the Ministry of Information. Those details you should ask from Finance Ministry.”

Asked whether the Council of Ministers had later supplemented the initial approval of $18 million, he said, “I can’t go into financial matters.”

“These are not general issues. This information is specific to the Ministry of Information... I’m not a computer, I’m a human being,” he told Radio Tamazuj.

Likewise, the Press Secretary in the Office of the President, Ateny Wek, declined to speak about the Council resolution, saying instead the Ministry of Information should explain the matter.

An official at the Ministry of Information, Acting Director-General Paul Jacob, said he did not want to discuss the details of the contract.

But he revealed that the project funds have never actually been released by the Ministry of Finance, saying the project was not implemented.

“There is no money,” he said. “Until now the money did not come.”

He said the project was supposed to be funded by a Chinese loan but this has not yet been approved. “The contract was done, and up to now we are waiting for money, and the money is not released by the Chinese Exim Bank. And that’s all.

“I don’t want to go into details of the contract but what I know is that a contract was signed between the Chinese company (ZTE) with the Ministry, and now we’re waiting for the money to be released from the Exim bank, which is a loan. ”

“When the money is released the work for digital migration it will start.”

However, Jacob did not explain the $33 million discrepancy between the contract amount of $51 million and the approved budget of $18 million. 

Related:

South Sudan Information Ministry overpaid for TV project: officials (3 Nov.)

Document alleged ‘big problem’ with S Sudan Information Ministry contract (29 Oct.)