Poor electronic network halts hundreds of lorries in South Darfur

Hundreds of commercial lorries from Khartoum have been congesting the streets and squares of Nyala, capital of South Darfur, since Tuesday.

One of the lorry drivers told Radio Dabanga that most of the vehicles are on their way to Central and West Darfur. Others are destined to deliver their goods to customers in eastern Chad.

The drivers are waiting for their loads to be processed at the Nyala Stock Market. “The federal Ministry of Finance recently replaced the passage fees paperwork by an electronic system that went down because of the poor network,” he explained.

He added that many drivers ran out of money, which forced some of them to sell their fuel quota to cover their expenses.

The driver demanded the Ministry of Finance to develop alternative methods to use in case the networks fail, “as everyone knows that many parts of Sudan suffer permanently from poor network services”.

The collection of passage fees through Form 15 was replaced on 31 July. With the switch to the electronic collection of the fees, the Finance Ministry aims to combat the rampant corruption in the country.

Finance Minister Badreldin Mahmoud told reporters in Khartoum on 31 July that his inspectors found 40 illegal fee collection forms, and seized SDG36,000 ($5,840) in illegally collected fees in Khartoum state in the previous months.

The Minister said that several federal institutions in the country were involved in the unlawful collection of fees.