The Governor of Northern Bahr El Ghazal State Tong Akeen Ngor (pictured) has warned state Director-Generals against divisive politics.

He made the statement during a meeting aimed at discussing the administrative responsibilities and challenges facing the state ministries.

Tong urged the Director-General to focus on their duties as well as to cooperate with their ministers to deliver on the State’s development goals.

In a statement released by the Office of the Governor, Tong urged the Director Generals to show their great respect to their ministers and focus more on the administrative duties assigned to them by their ministries.

Governor Tong urged the officials to always address their differences amicably without politicising them.

He requested the Director-Generals to implement the development strategies they discussed in the 10-day workshop organised by the National Ministry of Finance.

A representative of the Director-Generals Barnaba Aguer—who is the Director-General for the state Ministry of Information and Communication—called on all the colleagues to support their respective ministries in various technical aspects so that they can deliver better services to the people.

Barnaba described the meeting as productive and vowed to focus on providing technical support to their ministries.

On his part, the Director-General of the state Ministry of Finance, Planning and Investment John Karlo Dut dismissed the report about the missing money of the civil servants.

 “In the last two weeks, there was a piece of information which we call false accusation and fake news and misleading information meant to confuse the public and tarnish the name of state government by some people [sic],” he said.

“As a technical person in the ministry of finance, I would like to inform everyone in the state as well as the entire country that the information was not true; [it] was completely [a] misinformation.”

Dut said the salaries were already paid to the target institutions and civil servants.

“We were surprised to hear such misleading information while we did not receive any complaints from all that state information. And if there was such thing, we could [have gotten] the complaints here and not on media,” he said.

“We have all the records with us [indicating that] as of July 16, 2021, the month of May salaries have been paid. There is no way that someone will claim that he or she did not receive the [salary that] month.”

Two weeks ago, the state government organised a 10-day workshop to train state officials on a strategic development program.

Governor Tong had said in his opening remarks that the plan was aimed at boosting agriculture, constructing a referral hospital and boarding schools.

Other plans that he revealed included the installation of water yards to provide clean drinking water for domestic use and the construction of roads to ease the movement of people and goods.

“Development plans will be implemented by the state government that will boost the creation of job opportunities and provision of necessary basic services for the people,” Governor Tong explained.

Tong called on the state partner organisations to cooperate with the state government for the implementation of the development projects within the state.