Cabinet Statement after Closed Meeting

Staff Writer

The Council of Ministers held a closed meeting during the past three days, in which it reviewed the general situation and ways to confront the major challenges facing the country.

The meeting discussed in detail the initiative launched by the Prime Minister on the current political crisis and the way forward, stressing its importance for national consensus to confront the challenges of the transition. The Council called on all groups and forces of the Sudanese people to rally around it to achieve the goals of the revolution and the tasks of the transitional period with the broadest popular and national participation, and with firm support from All components of the transitional authority, civil and military, and peace partners.

During its meeting, the Council of Ministers issued a set of decisions related to the five announced transitional government priorities, which came as follows:

First – the economy:

• Continuing government support for medicine, cooking gas, electricity, and flour.
• Immediate start of campaigns to impose market control and price control.
• Confiscation and delivery of the smuggled gold and confiscated currencies to the Central Bank of Sudan.
• Immediately start to include one million families under the umbrella of health insurance, funded by the Ministry of Finance and the Zakat Bureau.
• Providing a monthly grant of 10 billion pounds to all state workers, not subject to taxes, with the highest percentage allocated to the lowest grades, to meet the current economic conditions as of July 2021.
• Expanding the application base of the Thimarat program to reach 3 million families (an average of about 15 million citizens) within two months.
• Increasing the capital of the Silaati program from 2 billion pounds to 10 billion pounds, to increase the reach of the beneficiaries of the project in the various states.
• The immediate start of activating the productive and consumer cooperative societies.
• Reviewing the salary structure to remove its distortions, and applying the new salary structure at the beginning of the new fiscal year 2022 AD.
• Starting the procedures for accommodating 5,000 male and female employees in the capital and the states at the service entrance.
• All school-age children are accepted free of charge in the first grade of primary school in government schools.
• Stopping the import from the customer’s resources, not allowing the import without banking procedures, and not accepting any settlement in this regard.
• Immediately complete the procedures for establishing a gold and crop exchange.
• Providing the necessary financing for agricultural inputs in the traditional and semi-mechanized irrigated and rain-fed sectors through the bank portfolio and the Ministry of Finance.
• Starting immediately the completion of the Qarya 3 electricity project, which is expected to add to the national grid the equivalent of 450 megawatts.
• Providing the necessary resources for the maintenance of all stations to ensure that the national network will add at least the equivalent of 250 megawatts, before the end of the year.
• Immediately sign contracts for solar and wind power generation projects.
• Rehabilitation of the irrigated projects area, adding 100,000 feddans to the existing areas.
• Immediately start digging 500 wells for drinking water in all states of Sudan, focusing on war-affected areas.

Second – Peace:

• Resuming direct dialogue with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdel Aziz El-Hilu as soon as possible, signing a framework agreement to advance the issue of reaching a comprehensive peace agreement in the country, and continuing to urge the Sudan Liberation Army, led by Professor Abdel Wahid Mohamed Ahmed Al-Nur, to join the peace process.
• Providing the necessary resources to ensure the implementation of the Juba Agreement for the Peace of Sudan.
• Ensuring the extradition of wanted persons before the International Criminal Court.
• Addressing the problems of eastern Sudan in all its dimensions, with the participation of all parties.
• Ensuring the establishment of the Governance and Administration Conference.

Third – The Security and Military Axis:

• Supporting and backing the people’s armed forces in their redeployment within the Sudanese territories on the eastern borders to preserve the security and property of citizens in the border areas.
• Supporting the police forces with all the necessary aids and capabilities to enable them to establish security and the rule of law.

• Expedite the discussion and approval of the necessary laws:
  • The Internal Security Act.
  • Police Act.
  • Law of the General Intelligence Service.

• Providing the necessary resources to expedite the implementation of the Security Arrangements Protocol of the Juba Agreement for the Peace of Sudan.
• Establishing a ministerial mechanism to carry out the necessary reforms in the General Intelligence Agency in cooperation with all relevant authorities.
• Enhancing the security of oil fields and continuing comprehensive treatment of local community issues.

Fourth – External Relations:

• Intensifying efforts in the issue of the Renaissance Dam in a way that achieves the interests of Sudan in the safety of its citizens, its resources, and its water facilities.
• Holding a national conference on foreign relations before the end of the year to build an agreed-upon foreign relations strategy.
• Fulfilling the financial obligations of our foreign missions, and reviewing and restructuring missions abroad.

Fifth – issues of democratic transition:

• Work with all parties to ensure the formation of the Legislative Council within less than a month.
• Completing the preparation of two draft laws for the Electoral Commission and the Constitution-making Commission within a maximum month.
• Finishing the preparation of the draft law of the Higher Judicial Council within a maximum month.
• Supporting the committee to dismantle the June 30 system and providing it with the necessary resources to carry out its tasks.
• Raising the efficiency of internal government communication and enhancing the work of media and communication units in ministries and government institutions.
• Supporting the work of the National Committee to investigate the dispersal of the sit-in so that it can finish its work.

The Council of Ministers also decided to reduce government spending by applying the following policies:

• Reducing the cost of participation in official external missions for all government units by (50%).
• Reducing fuel quotas for government cars by 20%.
• Inventory of all surplus government vehicles and sell them with the general indication that the largest part of their revenue is employed for the health sector (medicines and rehabilitation of hospitals).
• Allocating four-wheel-drive vehicles for missions only.
• Reducing the budgets of embassies, consulates, and attaches by 25%.
• Cancellation of the allocations of all constitutional office holders, deputy ministers, and heads of units during the era of the defunct regime, and review of decisions related to those allocations.
• Merging and restructuring government agencies and companies to achieve a reduction in government spending.