Umbrella coalition intends to make it very expensive for corrupt people to live freely and enjoy their loot whether from here or outside South Sudan. Return of the lost funds or equipment with reasonable interest, banning of culprits from holding public offices ranging from 10 years to infinity and life imprisonment shall be some of the punishments to be administered to corrupt officials. Through an effective and stringent management against corruption, Umbrella hopes to rescue our country’s economy from the currently rampant distortions of corruption which have brought it to its knees. Government officials who have made it a habit to fake companies and illegally award themselves contracts will be arrested, prosecuted and charged with economic crimes. Their penalties will also depend on whether they did any meaningful work and the extent to which South Sudan benefited from the self-awarded contracts.

No one shall be above the law. Everybody shall be equal under the law during the P Umbrella of Political Parties led government. Any leader or official who by way of omission or commission covers up a suspect or disrupts the due process of the law shall if found meet harsher legal punishments than the one he / she tried to protect. The protection of suspects by the Executive common today especially on corruption in the

disguise of collective responsibility / party spirit shall be declared an abomination in our country.

In an attempt to cut off unwarranted government expenditure, the Umbrella government will trim down the size of the public sector. The current service duplication in various government departments shall be done away with. Ministries will be merged and reduced; State borders revised to eliminate unnecessary balkanization and the size of parliament will be reduced to curtail unreasonable public expenditure. For instance in 2013, government was spending 20 Million pounds on government cars but within just few years, it increased to 50 Million Pounds. Though the current figure has been difficult to access, we believe it is again much higher than 50 million Pounds since the government continues to multiply ministries and corruption continues to be on the raise. Such meaningless and exaggerated expenditure will come to an end.

Already, there is patriotism in the country but Umbrella will even promote it further and not by mere words as is the practice today but by actions. The code of conduct of all Umbrella government officials will among other qualities include complete commitment to the national service with total mindedness to the community interest. Any government official incapable of serving the country above self will be dismissed but the due process of the law of relieving such a person of their duties inorder to ensure justice will not be ignored.

Umbrella will be honest about the country’s performance such as the rate of economic growth so that together as a country, we get the appropriate way forward. This will be a solution to the existing crisis whereby government programmes are suffering from symbolism and political gimmick amidst well founded

fears that most of the figures by the state purporting economic growth are not authentic and the intention is to create an image but not the real situation on ground.

In fear that the resources of this country could have been plundered worse than anyone could imagine, Umbrella will constitute a Commission of Inquiry to find out how much money has come into this country from abroad in form of loans, donations and grants for the last 10 years in regard to how and for what it was spent. No associated illegalities will go away unpunished. Already there is discomfort in the country that nearly all the meager services and infrastructure are funded by especially loans from abroad; what does our locally generated revenue do? Why for example do we have the most expensive roads but of the poorest quality in the whole world? To answer such questions, a Commission of Inquiry is inevitable. We must see value for money before passing the burden of paying the heavy public debt to the next generation or else, somebody somewhere should be held responsible.

Umbrella shall build a strong state with independent institutions bearing efficiently working systems capable of handling peoples’ problems. The current vice of contempt of parliament by the Executive moreover with impunity shall be completely a habit of the past. It will be killed and buried never to see the sun again. The principle of separation of powers will be upheld by the Umbrella led government. This will enable to provide checks and balances between the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. Umbrella strongly protests the current scenario where the Presidency has swallowed not only the Executive but also the Legislature and the Judiciary and there are virtually no institutions to talk about in South Sudan.

The long-standing question of “Federal” shall be ironed out in a national referendum held in accordance of the Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan.

An independent Think Tank for the Nation consisting of eminent persons who must not be politicians but respected people of great wisdom and experience will be formed to provide strategies to carry out the national vision. It will also have the task to keep analyzing the implications of government policies, practices and laws on development.

Umbrella will create an enabling environment for other Think Tanks to spring up at different levels in the entire country. In particular, the creation of Youth Centers and Think Tanks will be encouraged both in the general community and in Universities as well as other Tertiary Institutions. The purpose of these Think Tanks include but not limited to involving the masses in directly determining the national destiny by organized developing and collecting ideas from them which will be considered in the national planning by the government. Again, Umbrella will revive the culture of Liberal debates in the country especially in Universities.

Umbrella will establish effectively functioning governance institutions in order to guarantee national development. In the same vein, the Umbrella led government will be run on the basis of ideas, professional expertise and long term planning.

Salaries of all civil servants shall be reviewed and rationalized with intention to eliminating corruption and creating motivation. In addition, the existing anti-corruption agencies will be strengthened and more adequately facilitated in order to effectively fight graft, abuse of power and embezzlement. This

will save the country from the amazing hundreds of billions of pound and dallars which our struggling country loses to various forms of corruption every year.

Umbrella will construct office buildings to cater for all public administration of central government business. The current habit of renting especially for ministries in which some government officials are the landlords and award themselves inflated rent payments will stop. At the same time, nepotism and Tribalism will be under attack while patronage politics which is common today will not even arise because Umbrella won’t allow it to exist even for a day.

The saying that “Most African Countries has good policies but implementation is a problem” is almost a song in the country as if we have no government! Some countries copy and paste our policies and develop while our country remains staggering with choking poverty, violation of our policies and the rule of law. For example, our local government policy was rated the best in the world and was hinged on service delivery. However, it was later on diverted to instead cater for political patronage, balkanization, leap service, symbolism and political gimmick in order to serve selfish interests of “powerful” individuals in the current regime. We would like to promise that during the Umbrella government, we will go back to the original good intentions of the local government and Liberalization policy and other policies of the country so that all South Sudanese get the best out of them.