South Sudan: Old Corruption Continues in New Nation

analysis

The box was half the height of the minister's desk. At the start of the day it was full to the brim with South Sudanese banknotes.

The national-level official would see 50 people every day, or until the money ran out, according to someone who worked with him and asked to remain anonymous. "He would pick a different community or area every day, and give them money. That's what he saw as his job," his former colleague says.

Many other officials were not so generous: South Sudan's money ended up in their own pockets. Fuelled by billions of petrodollars from South Sudan's oilfields, corruption rapidly became one of the defining features of the state, which declared its independence from Sudan in July 2011. It may even have contributed to the terrifying civil war in the new country, which broke out last December.

Although the word "corruption" does not exist in some South Sudanese languages, the impact of graft has been felt for decades. The united Sudan was famously corrupt, regularly appearing near the top of corruption indexes. Southern Sudan was particularly vulnerable. It fought two long and very damaging wars with Khartoum, increasing poverty rates, halting development and weakening the few institutions in place.

Rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and its political wing, the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), fought against the state from 1983-2005 and set up a rudimentary administrative system in the areas they controlled. This, too, opened many opportunities for enrichment.

The SPLA's top leaders held a fiery meeting in 2004 in Rumbek, a town in what was then central southern Sudan. Salva Kiir, then the SPLM's deputy chairman, spoke frankly: "Corruption, as a result of the lack of structures, has created a lack of accountability which has reached a proportion that will be difficult to eradicate."

In January 2005, the SPLM signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with Sudan's ruling National Congress Party. The CPA established southern Sudan as a semi-autonomous region and gave it almost half of the oil revenues it produced. The old soldiers came in from their bush headquarters and began creating the framework of a state.

For many, the opportunity presented by the oil billions was simply too great to pass up. A scheme to build emergency grain stores ended with many stores paid for but not built and grain purchased but not delivered. As much as $2 billion was unaccounted for. Government contracts were given in exchange for kickbacks. A foreign consultant witnessed a senior official at a ministry receive a brown envelope, count a wedge of cash several centimetres thick, and then tell the person who had handed him the envelope: "That's fine, you will get the contract on Monday."

Some money was probably siphoned off to prepare for a possible future conflict with Khartoum. Some went to communities with ties to a minister or official. The rest benefited only a few individuals. The 2007 and 2008 auditor-general's reports revealed hundreds of millions of missing dollars.

One example of where those funds disappeared is the education ministry's "weekend allowance", an amount that could have paid for the monthly salaries of 855 teachers.

Independence in 2011 did nothing to change the dynamic. South Sudan now had full control of the oil and there was even more money available to steal.

Humvees and Land Cruisers queued up in the car parks of the new hotels and restaurants in Juba, the South Sudanese capital. The rest of the country was largely left to fend for itself.