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UNISCI Discussion Papers, Nº 33 (Octubre / October 2013) ISSN 1696-2206According to the Local Government Framework, service delivery, public order anddevelopment are the three basic functions of the local government. Its guiding principle issummarized in its subtitle: “Taking towns to the people”, which is generally considered as asynonym for bringing services to the rural areas. 54 County competences and duties, under theStates’ supervision following the principle of subsidiarity, include, among others, theregulation and management of land and natural resources including land acquisition fordevelopment purposes, local revenues management and the power to sign agreement withprivate companies and donors for public service delivery. 55Being the highest level of the Local Government, County authorities are in a strategicposition for whatever concerns local development and, as level of statutory governmentclosest to the grassroots, they are often considered to represent the interests of the localpopulation, 56 despite their executives still being appointed by state governors.4.2. Financial ResourcesLocal Government Council financial viability should rest on local tax collection, 57 localrevenues, and government and donor grants. 58 Donor grants are expected to be the mostimportant contribution to service delivery and development infrastructure, as it appears in theRubkhona County strategic plan for 2013-2015. The County’s expected expenses for the year2013 amount to 112.600.000 SSP (decreasing to about 5.900.000 and 3.700.000 in thefollowing years). Tax revenues are expected to be around 1.400.000 SSP in 2013 and1.800.000 in 2015, while state government grants are expected to be 3.400.000 SSP per yearon average. It seems that donors and relief agencies are expected to fill the 2013 huge gap.According to some of my governmental interviewees, 59 state government grants are mostlyaimed at paying county personnel salaries. While these top-down channels of financialresources are more or less functioning, the local capacity of tax collection appears to be veryweak due to both weak fiscal basis in the absence of a strong private sector and widespreadunofficial taxation that does not contribute to sustain the local government.Since most of the financial resources are expected to come from above, the County isseen as an important interface to attract external funding to the community. This explains theproliferation of Counties and lower administrative units as it is described by Schomerus andAllen 60 and recalled by Aeberli. 61 Local claims for self-rule and access to resources go handin hand with the opportunity of enlarging clients’ networks for those that appoint54 Interviews to SPLM acting chairman in Unity State; Director of Land Department of Ministry of PhysicalInfrastructure in Unity State; Pariang County Commissioner, February-March 2013; Aeberli, op. cit.55 Local Government Act, op. cit., Appendix II Schedule I.56 A few international aid workers, for example, reported that they interacted with county commissioners in orderto ensure the success of their projects as they considered them to represent local communities. One of them waseven surprised by the fact that despite the county commissioner declared its support to the project and evenoffered the use of his car as a contribution, the local community where the project was to be implemented totallyopposed it in such a harsh way that it could not be realized. Personal communications, March and April 2013.57 Local taxes include: local rates, land tax, health card tax, permit rate, licenses, court fees, fines/penalties,slaughter fees, gibana (personal tax, which is expected to be 0 in 2013), animal taxes, royalty from sale oftimbers, auction fees, bar & restaurants, fresh & dry fish, liquor fees, weekly collection rate, commodity taxes.Local Government Board (2012): Strategic Plan 2012-2015, Rubkhona County – Unity State.58 Local Government Act, op. cit., Section 73.59 Interviews with Director of Planning and Budgeting, Ministry of Local Government, Unity State, February2013; Project officer, Winrock-BRIDGE program, Bentiu, March 2013.60 Schomerus, Mareike and Allen, Tim (2010): Southern Sudan at Odds with Itself: Dynamics of Conflict andPredictaments of Peace, London, Development Studies Institute- London School of Economics; Aeberli, op. cit.61 Ibid.46
UNISCI Discussion Papers, Nº 33 (Octubre / October 2013) ISSN 1696-2206commissioners, i.e. state governors. Some of my interviewees stated that, due to its role inmanaging local revenues and making relevant decision at the local level, commissionership isa very prestigious position, and go as far as claiming that a County Commissioner is currentlymore powerful than a state minister. As evidence for this claim, I was given a few examplesof influent politicians or ex-military commanders that were moved to Commissioner positionsas a form of reward, in order to improve their position, and of former Commissioners thatwere removed and relocated in “useless” positions because “they don’t satisfy the needs of thegovernor”. Unfortunately, I was not able to access any State budget to check the amount offinancial resources destined to each state ministry; therefore I do not have clear evidence toconfirm my interviewees’ positions. Nevertheless, a few elements could suggest that thisstatement is not too far from reality. First of all, ministries do not have access to additionalresources than those provided by state governments through national budget allocation andtax collection at state level, which is however weak just as at County level. A study by theSudd Institute in 2012 found states accounted on average only for the 16% of the total GoSSspending, and only for the 12% of approved budget in the period 2006-2011. 62 Finally, whenit comes to external development funding, ministries do have a key coordination role but donot directly access and channel resources, as it seems counties will be increasinglyempowered to do.This idea of the relevance of the county level in order to access resources for the locallevel is strengthen by two recent laws regulating the management of two of the mostimportant natural resources of the country: land and oil.The Land Act (2009), which regulates the access and management of the land in SouthSudan, is based upon the famous Garang’s aphorism “the land belongs to the people”. Theexact meaning of this statement has long been discussed: what the Act recognizes is a form ofcommunal right over rural land in stating that “All the land in Southern Sudan is owned bythe people of Southern Sudan (…)” 63 without however specifying who is to represent thecommunities’ interests vis-à-vis the government and especially foreign investors. Accordingto the Local Government Act, people should rule themselves through a traditional communityauthority 64 whose power is however limited to the judicial sphere in levels higher than theBoma. Being unclear who has the legitimacy of representing community interests, itsinterpretation in practical circumstances is being in pro-government way, identifying thecommunity with the County authorities. A senior official of the Ministry of Agriculture inUnity State declared in an interview: “The land belongs to the community means that the ninecounties belong to nine different clans of Nuer (…) [but] The owners of the land are thecounty authorities”. 65The Petroleum Act 2012 states that “The Government shall allocate and pay to thestates and communities in accordance with applicable law”. 66 The applicable law herementioned was formulated in 2012 but not yet approved: the draft Petroleum RevenueManagement Bill attributes to States and Local Government Councils 2% and 3% of the NetPetroleum Revenues respectively. 67 The Interpretation section of the Bill defines the Local62 Ting Mayai, Augustino: “Mapping Social Accountability: An Appraisal of Policy Influence on ServiceDelivery in South Sudan, 2006-2011”, Policy Brief, nº 1(November 2012), The Sudd Institute.63 Government of Southern Sudan (2009): Land Act, 2009, Ch. II, art. 7.1.64 Government of Southern Sudan (2009): Local Government Act, op. cit., section 114.65 Interviewed in Bentiu, March 2013.66 Government of the Republic of South Sudan: Petroleum Act, 2012, Ch. XVI, art. 7467 Government of the Republic of South Sudan Petroleum Revenue Management Bill – Draft, 2012, Ch. VII, art.28.1 (a) (b)47
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