Author: Koang Pal Chang | Published: 2 hours ago
President Salva Kiir – File Photo courtesy of Office of the President
President Salva Kiir has ordered the formation of a high-level technical committee to operationalize the South Sudan Official Gazette and enhance the official website of the Office of the President.
Announced on Monday, January 12, via the state broadcaster, this move seeks to create a secure and transparent national system for publishing critical government documents.
The committee is led by the Secretary-General of the Government with the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice serving as his deputy, and it includes technical experts from the Ministry of Information and the National Communication Authority.
The primary task of this team is to create both a physical book and a digital portal for the Official Gazette. This system will be protected by encrypted digital verification to ensure that Presidential signatures and Acts of Parliament cannot be forged or manipulated.
The public will eventually have read-only access to this information through a redesigned and much more secure Office of the President website, which will serve as the primary host for the e-gazette.
A significant part of the mandate involves clearing a massive administrative backlog. The committee must identify and prepare for publication all important laws, decrees, and resolutions passed since the country gained independence in 2011. This is intended to provide legal certainty for the nation after years of inconsistent record-keeping.
This reform follows a recent policy change where the government stopped announcing most minor appointments on the evening news. Instead of the public finding out about job changes on TV, official documents will now be handled as privileged executive communication.
President Kiir has given the committee a strict 14-day deadline to submit their plan and the first volume of the Gazette. Once approved, the President will formally launch the new digital portal, marking a shift toward a more formalized and secure way for the government to communicate with its citizens.
