Central Bank last Friday issued a statement rubbishing an earlier story published by Juba Monitor on Wednesday last week titled “Alarming, Central Bank USD rates shut-off forexes”. The bank’s statement dwelt mostly on what they perceived to be “misinformation” peddled by this newspaper. The statement was fully given prominence and published by Juba Monitor among other stories that the bank’s governor stated at that press conference which seems to have been hurried convened to down cut or preempt the facts outlined in our story. The seven points raised by the bank do not have any important value to the common-man as they only laid down procedures used by Central Bank here and in other countries. The points do not tell the public why prices of basic commodities still remain high in the local markets. It does not say why most traders are only talking about trading in dollars all the time without giving preference to the national local currency like in other countries. More still the points did not mention anywhere why the dollar rate remains high in circulation mostly in the back streets. The bank did not come out with audited and authenticated figures of dollar auction since the exercise began. They did not even mention which of the forex bureaus or individuals if any who have benefitted through the auction. The intention of the auction as understood by the common-man is very simple. To make life bearable against high cost of basic commodities. Not how Foreign Exchange department works. This was the prime goal that the government made it possible for the bank to try and avail the USD in the local market to cushion the raising abnormalities in the country caused by the dollar. The bank should know that media is the public watchdog and voices of the voiceless. There is nothing personal but the bank must outlive its “fear of the unknown” and come out to correct the wrongs pointed out instead of looking for cover to out-do service delivery to the public. Juba Monitor does not claim on itself to be the leading newspaper in the country but public records are there to attest to this.
