JUBA – The Members of the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly have taken the oath of office. Typical of representatives that use politician filters, they are promising manna and quail to their constituents and the people of South Sudan (for MPs without constituencies).

While expectations from citizens to whom the legislators are accountable heighten, one key initiative stands in between; the implementation of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), which was not done by the previous lawmakers.

The failure to implement this initiative has given room to MPs who sleep on duties to sit with hands folded and citing a lack of budget to undertake developmental projects in their constituencies. Some of the 300 members of the lower house hardly made efforts to visit their constituents to get first-hand information on the state of affairs.

A senior parliamentary official familiar with the content of the CDF proposal told City Review that if this initiative is implemented, there should be no excuse from legislators on the negligence of duties. The Members of Parliament who campaigned for the 2010 seats were either lucky or simply fooled the electorate.

By the time, the country was stable (economically and politically) but these folks who were voted overwhelmingly to represent the community acted on satisfying their selfish interests at the expense of the constituents.

In Magwi County of Eastern Equatoria State, Otim Karlo, Betty Ogwaro, Aber Samson – all won overwhelmingly thanks to their campaign managers. Mr. Otim, who only preferred to be identified as “Honourable”, was in charge of infrastructure affairs.

Under his tenure, Magwi County had one of the poorest road networks in the country, while the self-acclaimed honorable built state-of-the-art lodges and bars in the town of Magwi County. He was nicknamed “Otim Ma Twero”, an Acholi phrase that loosely translates to “Otim is able”.

This “honorable” would tour the constituency just to show off the number of coats and pairs of shoes to the poor constituents who voted for him notwithstanding the poor roads which jeopardized agriculture to the local population. He may no longer be in parliament but he left a permanent legacy.

The rest of the MPs mentioned never went back to the electorate. Unlike Mr. Otim whose investments, including in several coats and pairs of shoes, were seen, his fellow legislators did the opposite. They were seen either once in a blue moon or never at all.

What other MPs can learn from this

As the incoming MPs seek to implement the CDF initiative, it should be for the benefit of their constituencies. It is the Constituency Development Fund, not Constituency Embezzlement Fund.

With 550 lawmakers in the lower house, the allocation of development funds should also be restricted to legislators with constituencies. It would be an ideological bankruptcy for an MP with no constituency to represent to be a beneficiary of this fund.

There are just 170 constituencies in South Sudan. Subtract that from 550, an outstanding 380 legislators will be doing nothing in parliament. The compromised agreement helped bring them in. While they are entitled to their benefits scheme just like the rest, the CDF must not include them.

It is the wish of many, if not all citizens, that the State will not make the current parliament a get-rich-quick scheme by offering lavish benefits when the citizens suffer. The push for the CDF initiative implementation is wise but managing it could raise another challenge. However, giving it a try would tell how the initiative plays out.