The Net Oil Revenue scandal is a wound that may never heal

The South Sudan Audit Chamber released an explosive report detailing how the oil revenue shares belonging to oil-producing states and communities were misappropriated by influential individuals.

This happened in complete defiance of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2013 which provides that 2% and 3% of the revenue share be given to the communities.

Four almost ten years, the money deposited the bank accounts of the beneficiaries was siphoned by individuals – some with clear identification while others are not known.

Data obtained by this paper indicates that Upper Nile State, Northern Upper Nile, Unity State, and Ruweng Administrative Area – the beneficiaries of the 2% share got less than the total amount. They were able withdraw just $19million from the $25million deposited by the Bank of South Sudan (See front page story for details).

This points to the fact that over $5 million ended up in the jaw of cartels. The fate was even worse for the beneficiaries of the 3% share.

Renk Community, Ruweng Administrative, Melut Community, and Maban Community were supposed to get the $60 million deposited by the Bank of South Sudan from 2014 – 2020. It didn’t work that way.

The communities and regions shared only $1 million among themselves with more than $59 million siphoned by beneficiaries not entitled to such funds by the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2013 as amended (See front page story for details).

Of course the data presented by the Auditor General did not include the period from 2011 to 2013 when the PRM Act was not enacted, an excuse by the Ministry of Finance and Planning – which makes sense to some extent.

Now, the audit committee is going after the illegal beneficiaries of such illicit transactions, including the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of South Sudan. The former is also being ordered to produce further details to help in the verification of the report.

Things to note

As much the Audit Chamber is making an effort to hold these people accountable, it is important to note that some of these illegal transactions were made five years ago. There is a likelihood that some recipients of these funds have either permanently moved out of the country, or, in a more unfortunate scenario, died.

Also, another challenge that the audit committee is likely to face is the deeply-rooted culture of impunity. In South Sudan, that has been the most complex vice to fight, just like corruption. It is unclear how the committee with tackle the culture of impunity. Both in the report and the resolution by the Council of States Ad hoc Committee, there are no prescribed penalties for individuals that would attempt to block the revenue recovery process. It also goes without mentioning that the committee did not