November 29, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – A number of lawmakers blasted the parliament speaker Ahmed Ibrahim and claimed that he is covering up "blatant irregularities" committed by public banks that inflicted huge losses on the government.

Sudanese parliamentary speaker Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Tahir (Suna)

At a parliamentary workshop on the budget, lawmakers accused unspecified institutions of using their influence to avoid auditing.

MP Ghalia Haj Abdu also pointed fingers at the finance ministry saying that its internal control is lacking and called on her colleagues to "maintain their prestige" through obtaining the information needed to play their role of keeping checks and balances on the government.

A member of the parliament’s economic committee named Babiker Mohamed Tom urged the speaker to furnish the inspector general’s report on the performance of public banks.

Tom said that hiding the report amounts to "covering up" the breaches done by these banks.

MP Ibrahim Nasr al Deen on his end disclosed that there are cases of corruption and embezzlement in these banks which are eventually borne by the government.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a report released this month urged Sudanese authorities to conduct "a comprehensive evaluation of the banking system....to enhance the legal, regulatory, and institutional framework in line with international practice, and remove impediments to financial deepening"

Also, banking supervision should be strengthened, including through enhanced training of supervisory staff".

In recent years there have been several cases of major state-owned banks going under over Non-Performing Loans (NPL) requiring intervention by government to bail it out.

(ST)