Juba (28 August 2025) The Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), Edmond Yakani, raised serious concerns about what he described as a “paralysis of checks and balances” in states where governors have kept parliaments non-functional.
Civil society activists have called on President Salva Kiir to immediately direct state governors to reopen their parliaments, warning that the continued shutdown of state legislative assemblies is fueling mismanagement and diversion of public revenues.
Yakani said some governors are deliberately avoiding legislative scrutiny to conceal irregularities in governance, particularly in the management of state revenues. “Some states are only functioning with one organ of government – the executive – without a functional parliament. This has paralyzed checks and balances and the
oversight role of lawmakers who represent the people,” Yakani said. Some governors are allegedly directly controlling state revenues with little or no accountability. These revenues include personal income taxes from NGO workers, government employees, and businesses.