VZCZCXRO8053
OO RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #1292/01 2381458
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 251458Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1713
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001292 
 
DEPT FOR AF/SPG, A/S FRAZER, SE WILLIAMSON 
NSC FOR BPITTMAN AND CHUDSON 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM EAID SU
SUBJECT: GOSS FREEZES MINISTRY SALARIES IN ACCOUNTABILITY MOVE 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  The Government of Southern Sudan's three-month 
old salary freeze levied against civil service employees of the 
Ministry of Legal Affairs has been indefinitely extended pending 
turnover of documents clarifying who authorized the multi-year 
payroll excesses.  While the Legal Affairs Minister has consistently 
defended his staff's right to receive pay commensurate with their 
education and on par with their ministerial counterparts within the 
Government of National Unity, a recently concluded investigation by 
the Ministry of Labor has revealed that senior officials within MOLA 
receive monthly salaries that averaged eight times greater than 
their GOSS colleagues elsewhere in the civil service. Specialized 
allowances outpaced those awarded in Khartoum by a scale greater 
than 5:1. The Minister's involvement in the pay scandal remains 
unclear: payroll is handled at the Undersecretary or Director 
General-level in most ministries, and Labor's report demonstrated 
that the Minister himself receives only the fourth highest salary in 
the ministry.  However, the controversy does provide one of the 
South's foremost attorneys with a significant distraction as the 
Government of Southern Sudan prepares for forthcoming Abyei 
arbitration, continued wrangling over the details of the 2009 
elections, and the demarcation of the North/South border.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly awarded Minister 
for Labor, Public Service, and Human Resources Development Awut Deng 
Acuil its first-ever standing ovation on August 13 following 
three-hours of detailed testimony on the state of the GOSS civil 
service.  Payroll and operating costs continue to make up about 80% 
of the GOSS yearly budget expenditures.  Deng's ministry has just 
concluded an eight-month investigation into pay scales and 
employment rosters, eliminating approximately one million thirty 
seven ghost workers from the rolls and saving the GOSS a still-to-be 
calculated but sizeable amount in operating expenses (septel).  Deng 
told ConGen PolOff at the margins of her testimony that her 
presentation on right-sizing the GOSS civil service payroll was 
long-planned. However, she allowed that specific revelations about 
the Ministry of Legal Affairs were driven by a formal request by 
Maridi MP Peter Bashir Gbendi (SPLM), one of the Assembly's most 
vocal critics of government corruption, and a leading figure within 
the SPLM's now-defunct Interim National Council.  Gbendi is also in 
the midst of a personal feud with Legal Affairs Minister Michael 
Makuei, angered by what he derided to ConGen PolOff as Makuei's 
"overly timid approach" to corruption allegations tied to the GOSS 
Presidency.  (COMMENT: Gbendi's overly-specific request for 
information on MOLA, despite the Ministry of Labor's frank admission 
that a majority of GOSS ministries suffer from "payroll excesses," 
appears to be another vehicle by which to indirectly pressure Makeui 
to move forward on outstanding corruption investigations such as the 
2006/2007 Al Cardinal procurement scandal. END COMMENT.) 
 
¶3. (SBU) Makuei is familiar with such criticism from Gbendi and 
others, but countered to ConGen PolOff that "one needs to understand 
the language of your boss." According to the Minister of Legal 
Affairs, Kiir continues to actively signal that he will permit 
corruption investigations focused on presidential staffers to be 
taken "only so far." Reached the afternoon of Deng's testimony, the 
minister maintained that his hands are tied and furthering the Al 
Cardinal investigation remains a short-term impossibility.  Personal 
feuds between Gbendi and Makuei aside, the evidence compiled by the 
Labor Ministry's "Pay Sheets Review Committee Taskforce" has 
presented Makuei with a sizeable scandal. Not only is the Minister 
now faced with responding to an incensed SSLA (and by all accounts, 
GOSS Council of Ministers), but also he must curb a downward trend 
in productivity motivated by the three-month old salary freeze that 
has been imposed upon his staff.  Laws continue to bottleneck at 
MOLA - some twenty-six pieces of legislation are awaiting 
transmittal to the SSLA, held hostage by disgruntled but equally 
over-worked attorneys. 
 
¶4. (SBU) While Makuei has long-argued that his staff deserve pay 
commensurate with their education and on par with their counterparts 
within the GNU Ministry of Justice, the figures unearthed by Deng 
defy rationalization.  With Makuei absent from the chamber, Deng 
effortlessly struck down arguments for "MOLA exceptionalism." Deng 
reminded an incredulous SSLA that MOLA's salary expenditures 
exceeded already approved "specialized rates and incentives" for the 
ministry.  The Assembly approved a salary supplemental in late 2006 
for MOLA's advanced degree holders which adjusted their pay scales 
into a range per month of 2,205 SDG for Grade 5 officials and 8,850 
SDG for the undersecretary. 
 
¶5. (SBU) However, Deng's investigation found that MOLA staff receive 
salaries that far exceed the Assembly's past generosity. Makuei's 
Undersecretary actually receives a monthly salary of 18,640 SDG 
versus the standardized GOSS-approved pay scale for undersecretaries 
of 2,500 SDG.  Senior Counsels earn a monthly salary of 15,550 SDG 
 
KHARTOUM 00001292  002 OF 002 
 
 
against similarly ranked GOSS civil servants earning only 2,375 SDG. 
 MOLA civil servants in pay grades 3, 4, and 5 receive 10,650 SDG, 
6,400 SDG, and 4,230 SDG monthly, against the GOSS-approved budget 
for those ranks of 2,251 SDG, 1,959 SDG, and 1,701 respectively. A 
non-degree holding clerical secretary at MOLA makes more money than 
a university degree-holding civil servant at other ministries hired 
on with a minimum of two years prior work experience. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Despite such revelations, Deng maintained that the majority 
of MOLA employees deserved to continue to receive tailored salaries 
and allotments.  "I have no quarrel with the sentiment that our best 
minds must be compensated for what they sacrifice when they choose 
to work in the South rather than Khartoum," and she encouraged the 
SSLA to continue the trend.  However, in addition to the Ministry's 
inability to explain how three civil servants receive higher 
salaries than the Minister himself, no paper trail could found to 
justify how MOLA attorneys receive allowances out of sync with their 
Khartoum counterparts.  While Deng agreed that adjustments must be 
made for the cost of living in Juba, the allowance ceiling for 
Ministry of Justice officials in Khartoum was 3,900 SDG/month, 
whereas MOLA advisers earned 16,640 SDG/month.  This figure included 
a base allowance five times greater than that received in Khartoum, 
and an unspecified "nature of work" allowance that totaled 4,120 SDG 
per month. 
 
¶7. (SBU) During oral testimony before the SSLA laced with sarcasm, 
Labor Minister Deng painted a picture of a rogue Legal Affairs 
Ministry unaccountable to neither her ministerial directives nor the 
Assembly's budget ceilings. While much of Deng's testimony revealed 
her own ministry's inability patrol ministerial excesses elsewhere 
in the executive branch, MOLA's actions were portrayed as the most 
egregious.  "While my Ministry's motto is "services without fear or 
favor," she noted, "I am embarrassed to admit this standard appears 
not to be met across all sectors." 
 
¶8. (SBU) "Beyond explanations of outright tribalism, nepotism, or 
favoritism," she continued, "I cannot explain why Legal Affairs is 
allowed to operate without an appropriately itemized payroll, why 
unqualified candidates merit specialized training, or why they have 
been permitted to shun direct requests for information from both my 
ministry and that of the Ministry of Finance." 
 
¶9. (SBU) Moreover, the Labor Minister pointedly noted to the 
Assembly that the Ministry of Legal Affairs had appeared to abandon 
appropriate levels of accountability or any semblance of a 
paper-trail when unknown staff members authorized pay clerks to 
exceed the pay roll budget for both the 2006 and 2007 fiscal years. 
Decisions to eschew standing labor practices remain equally 
unjustified. 
Of twenty-two MOLA staff pursuing donor-funded degree programs 
overseas, the Ministry of Labor had deemed eight staff members 
"technically unqualified" to receive the training, one of the 
grounds that the employee - as a MOLA staffer -- is pursuing a 
degree in medicine.  Despite disqualification by the GOSS and the 
mismatched degree, MOLA continues to pay their salary - this on top 
of full living and educational stipends received by each of the 
students. 
 
¶10. (SBU) COMMENT: Makeui has refuted aspects of Deng's charges in 
the media, and has committed to an appearance before the Assembly 
the week of August 25.  While the Minister's desire to salvage his 
previously spotless reputation may drive him to take action and 
turnover a now three-month old request for a paper trail, swift 
rectification of the payroll is unlikely.  Makuei's ire at Gbendi 
and others within the Assembly for formulating such a public 
castigation without giving him a chance for a contemporaneous 
response may simply play to his well-known stubborn streak, and 
further exacerbate strained MOLA/SSLA relations during an all-too 
critical period.  Makuei's own standing has suffered likely at the 
hands of malfeasance by his undersecretary, a damning airing of GOSS 
"dirty laundry" all the more likely to be seized upon by the NCP 
during the upcoming campaign season and intra-GNU discussions on CPA 
implementation more generally. 
 
ASQUINO