Gov’t slashes security budget by 35 percent

The government has reduced a budgetary allocation to the security sector by at least 34.9 per cent in the 2021/2022 financial year budget.

According to the budget proposal presented to the legislature on Wednesday by the Minister of Finance and Planning, Agak Achuil Lual, the security sector receives only 15.1 per cent of the budget for 2021–2021, meaning the sector will get only SSP 43.4 billion.

In previous years, the government had given priority to security by allocating almost 50 per cent of the country’s budget, while other sectors such as education and health have been underfunded. The two sectors have received an increase in their budgetary allocation for 2021/2022.

For example, the security sector received 19 per cent of the budget for the fiscal year 2018/2019.

Allocations

But this time, the government gave priority to the economic functions sector, which will receive a giant share of SSP73.0 billion, a figure representing 25.4 per cent of the budget.

Agak who presented the budget to the national legislature failed to explain why the government opted to cut the security budget allocation to 15.1 per cent leaving more room for guesswork.

However, South Sudan has been sanctioned by the UN Security Council. On July 13, 2018, the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan’s territory, legally obliging all UN member states to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale, or transfer of arms and related material – including ammunition, military vehicles, and spare parts.

In a press release dated May 28, 2021, the UN Security Council renewed the arms embargo, travel ban, and asset freeze imposed on South Sudan for another year and extended the mandate of the panel of experts tasked with overseeing those measures for another 13 months, while expressing its willingness to adjust them in light of ground conditions.

The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2577 (2021) under Chapter VII of the UN Charter by a vote of 13 in favour of the arms embargo for South Sudan, with two countries (India and Kenya) voting against it.

The Council resolved to extend the arms embargo imposed on South Sudan until May 31, 2022, which prohibits the supply, sale, or transfer of weapons, as well as the provision of technical aid, training, and other military assistance to the country’s territory.

However, in the 2015/16 fiscal year and subsequent fiscal years, priority sectors were accountability, public administration, rule of law, and security overspent their budgets, according to a report published by the United Nations.

Gainers and losers

The budgetary allocation for education, health, and social and humanitarian issues in this fiscal year’s budget has increased from the previous year’s allocation.

In the fiscal year 2020/2021, the allocation to the social sector was increased to SSP80.2 billion from SSP31.2 billion, a 157.1 per cent increase over the previous fiscal year budget.

“The social sector receives 27.9 per cent of the total budget allocation, up from 14.2 per cent in FY2020/2021. This increase reflects the government’s commitment to solving socioeconomic challenges in terms of improving service delivery to the people. “In the budget speech, the ministry of finance and planning remarked.

The allocation for education is SSP 49.2 billion, with an increase of SSP 24.7 billion, which accounts for 100.8 per cent compared to the FY 2020/2021 allocation of SSP 24.5 billion.

Similarly, the allocation to the health sector is SSP27.7 billion, of which SSP9.0 billion is earmarked to combat the COVID-19 pandemic as a significant shift to enhance health service delivery.

The provision of SSP 27.7 billion to the health sector represents a 575.6 per cent increase over the SSP4.1 billion allocation in the FY 2020/2021 budget. Even so, the budget allocation to the social and humanitarian sector of SSP 3.3 billion has increased by 26.9 per cent compared to FY 2020/21, according to the draft budget for 2021/2022.

The sectoral allocations              

The accountability sector will receive SSP 1.8 billion, which represents 0.6 per cent of the budget. The economic functions sector has been allocated SSP73.0 billion, accounting for 25.4 per cent of the budget. The sector will receive SSP 49.2 billion, which is 17.1 per cent of the budget. The health sector will receive SSP 27.7 billion, which represents 9.6 per cent.

Also, the infrastructure sector will receive SSP 10.4 billion, which represents 3.6 per cent of the budget, in addition to the oil for road projects of SSP 184 billion under mandatory transfers.

The allocation to the administrative sector is SSP 44.3 billion, which represents 15.4 per cent of the budget. The rule of law sector will get SSP 18.9 billion, which represents 6.6 per cent of the budget. The security sector will receive SSP 43.4 billion (15.1 per cent) and the social and humanitarian sector will receive SSP 3.3 billion, which represents 1.2 per cent of the budget.

The accountability sector is the least funded, with only 0.6 per cent, and the social and humanitarian affairs sector with 1.2 per cent in the sectoral allocations of the budget for the year 2021/2022.