By Steven Bol

The former Managing Director of Nilepet, Engineer Bol Ring Muorwel, was fired by President Kiir in October 2021 but the president gave no clear reason for firing Bol. There have been reports of nepotism and corruption practice led to the firing of Bol Ring who hails from the Greater Bhar El Ghazal region.

Eng. Bol has faced many criticisms ranging from corruption allegations to poor leadership within the last 13 months he has been in office but I believed that Bol Ring’s downfall can be attributed to his reshuffle of Nilepet secondees to JOCs.

When the Former MD did the reshuffle of Nilepet secondees to JOCs, that was an outcome of what he termed the fair reshuffling.

Out of the 37 new assignments in JOCs, 12 secondees, i.e. approximately (32.4%) come from Warrap and mainly from Mr. Bol’s background or family. In May, a reshuffle was halted because of fierce differences that emerged between the MD and Hon. Minister of Petroleum and grievances from oil-producing communities which of course led to the cancellation of that reshuffle.

We thought, Eng. Bol Ring Mourwel was going to re-examine this with some fairness and assign secondees from NilePet to the JOCs in a balanced approach however, what can be deduced from the list below, is that Eng. Bol Ring and Hon. Puot Kang settled their scores by allocating to their constituencies the lion’s share – a kind of win-win situation. This is corruption in its entirety.

It’s paradoxical to see that key staff and well-qualified employees from where oil wells are located were pushed to the periphery or taken back and grounded in NilePet. In this reshuffle, only one secondee from Ruweng and one from Melut were placed at key positions in the JOCs compared to 12 employees from Mr. Bol’s backyard.

Hon. Minister, whereas we claim our rightful share and representation in the oil sector, we also believe that rest of South Sudanese must also be represented in terms of providing equal employment opportunities for all. This reshuffle or secondment doesn’t represent the diversity of South Sudanese either in terms of regions, states, and tribes. As indicated in the table below, the secondees are from six (6) states only and three (3) Administrative Areas but also in a very disproportionate manner.

List of placed Secondees at JOCs (GPOC, DPOC and SPOC)

Classification by states/Administrative Areas                       % share by State/Administrative Area