South Sudanese policy and political analyst Boboya James Edimond has questioned President Salva Kiir’s decision to establish a committee to review unlawful tax exemptions, arguing that existing state institutions already have the legal mandate to investigate and address the issue.
President Kiir recently announced the formation of a committee tasked with reviewing alleged unlawful tax exemptions, a move aimed at strengthening government revenue collection and addressing abuses in the tax system.
Reacting to the announcement, Edimond acknowledged that tax exemptions have played an important role in supporting humanitarian operations by allowing aid agencies to import relief supplies such as food, medicines, fuel and construction materials without additional tax burdens.
“Tax exemption has been good from the humanitarian perspective because it enables aid organizations to provide more services to the South Sudanese people,” he told Radio Tamazuj.
He, however, contends that the system has been widely abused over the years by corrupt officials and politically connected individuals, resulting in significant losses in government revenue.
While welcoming efforts to tackle the abuse, Edimond questioned the need to create another committee, saying institutions such as the Ministry of Finance, the National Revenue Authority, the Ministry of Justice, the Anti-Corruption Commission and security agencies already have the legal authority to investigate financial misconduct.
“We don’t have an institutional problem; we have an implementation problem,” he said, adding that existing oversight bodies should be allowed to perform their mandates instead of creating new committees.
The analyst also called for broader reforms of the country’s revenue administration, including strengthening parliamentary oversight, empowering the National Audit Chamber, and improving accountability within public institutions.
Edimond further argued that parliament’s finance, justice, and public accounts committees should be given greater space to exercise oversight over government finances.
He criticized what he described as a recurring practice of establishing committees to handle governance challenges, saying such bodies often fail to produce meaningful outcomes.
“The era of forming committees must come to an end because they often end up diluting the intention of addressing the real issues,” he said.
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