Southern Speakers wilh fomer kenyan Speaker

INTRODUCTION

the Speakers of Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly (SSLA) and the ten State Assemblies came together and made a consensus decision to establish a Speakers’ Forum of Southern Sudan (SF) for working together and a way forward to realize the ideals of the CPA, the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan and the Interim Constitution of the ten States in concert with the Government of Southern Sudan at all levels;

The Forum (SF) in its second meeting of December 4th- 6th 2007, having reviewed the statute, recommendations and resolutions of the previous meeting and deliberated on the presentations, the meeting made the following observations and recommendations:

General Observations

• Security concerns in the whole of Southern Sudan arising from multiple problems of militias, cattle rustling and poachers.
• Lack of facilities for the committees and the Members of the Assembly
• Emoluments and privileges of the MPs, chairpersons and speakers and lack of the privileges similar to those of the executives has been a concern to many speakers.
• Coordination within the states between the legislatures and the executive need improvement.
• The importance of strong and efficient committee system and well trained staff of the assembly
• Communication and sharing of information is still an issue between GOSS, States and within the states.
• Terms of Reference; defining the roles and responsibilities of the constitutional post holders within various levels of government needs to be articulated clearly.
• Loopholes in the Conduct of Business Regulations
• Budgetary Constraints and lack of an independent accounting system for the Assemblies
• Balancing party and public interests and the need to set up proper human resource policies.