Denay Jok who served as Minister of Higher Education has been replaced by Gabriel Changson. Courtesy

The Governor of Jonglei State has defended opening a new bank account for the state in Juba, saying it is meant to unify block accounts of the former defunct states.

This comes after a civil society activist based in Jonglei criticized the state governor for opening an official bank account in Juba meant for remitting state revenues.

On the 8th of this month, Governor Denay Jock Chagor ordered humanitarian agencies and companies operating in the state to remit taxes directly to the new bank account.

Speaking to Eye Radio Tuesday afternoon, the governor said the move was to unify the state’s accounts, and not with bad intention.

The governor stated that most of the states have completed unifying their counts and Jonglei is the only state still trying to unify its accounts.

“What is happening is that in the state of Jonglei, we are working on unifying all the four defunct states: Bieh, Fangak, Akobo, and Jonglei,” Denay stated.

“Right now, as we are going towards the formation of the state government, we are unifying all the civil servants’ accounts; we are also going to unify all the bank accounts.”

“We are going back to the former account so that our government will have only one account for the entire Jonglei State and for the organizations that are working in the state, we will have only one PIT account in all of Jonglei state. This is what we are doing.”

Absence from the state headquarter

On the public outcry over his absence from the state headquarter, Denay claimed that he is in Juba to push things.

The governor says the people who question his stay in Juba are politically motivated.

“The same people who are saying why you are here, they will be the same people who will say why are you in Bor while you should be pushing things in Juba, this is what is going on. It’s politically motivated,” the governor said.

He stressed that currently, there is no functioning government in the state, saying the defunct states of great Jonglei are still running the affair of their states separately.

“As we speak right now, each defunct state is saying they can’t surrender their state structures until a complete unification is done,” Denay revealed.

“The only person that has been appointed for the state is the deputy governor, who is yet to take the oath of the office.”