Western Equatoria State Governor Alfred Futuyo has promised to take punitive measures against the state ministers for using inappropriate procedures to present their petition, including boycotting a cabinet meeting.

On Wednesday, the ministers mainly from members of the ruling party SPLM and FDs petitioned the governor for accusing officials of embezzling money meant for delivering services to the citizens. 

The letter was addressed to President Salva Kiir and signed by eight state ministers, refuting as baseless the alleged speech by the governor which they claimed would tarnish the image of the officials. 

“Your Excellency, we were disappointed by the statement of the Hon. Governor of Western Equatoria State during the commemoration of HIV/AIDS Day yesterday in Yambio. Here, the Hon. Governor brought a baseless allegation of mismanagement of public funds by the state cabinet ministers.”

“That statement was completely false and amounts to melting the public against cabinet ministers, which is unlawful and hence unacceptable. We would like to condemn in the strongest possible terms the baseless corruption allegations that he made against us.

“As responsible people, the Governor’s baseless allegation of corruption against Hon Ministers in his statement yesterday has tarnished our reputable image in front of the public, which is unacceptable,” partly read the petition letter.

The Press Secretary in the office of the governor, Alex Daniel Digi told The City Review on Sunday that a meeting will be held today (Monday) in the state capital, Yambio with the disgruntled cabinet members to discuss the matter.

Digi said it was not wrong to petition the governor but the procedure used was unacceptable to address the letter directly to the president without the knowledge of the state’s leaders.

He argued that the letter should have been first submitted to the state SPLM Chairperson because the majority of the ministers who signed the letter were SPLM members, then to the governor himself before it could reach the president.

“The governor is going to call for those people by Monday to come and explain,” Digi said.

“Any person who will be found misleading people with [false] information, the legal procedure will be taken against that person.”

“It is not that [governor] will do something directly to them, no, it will be legal administration procedure based on the guilt the person has done,” he added.

Digi said governor the governor did not accuse the cabinet of mismanaging funds but to let them use the little resources effectively to deliver services to the citizens.

Last Friday, the ministers who signed the petition letter boycotted the state weakly meeting which Digi said was another mistake by leaders that could hamper services delivery to the people in Western Equatoria State.

“You are appointed as a minister to come and serve people in your ministry not to come and play a game against somebody in a different position. We will not realize any development if leaders are not united, [and] there will be no services to the community,” Alex said.