South Sudan’s state-owned Nile Petroleum Corporation (Nilepet) is the backbone of the country’s oil-dependent economy, yet it has become synonymous with opacity, patronage and contested leadership. Today, the company is not only struggling with strikes, unpaid wages and internal turmoil; its current Managing Director, Eng. Ayuel Ngor Kacgor, is widely seen as tainted by serious allegations of corruption and mismanagement reported in South Sudanese and regional media, as well as in international governance assessments.
A structurally vulnerable company
Long before Ayuel Ngor took office, Nilepet was identified as a high-risk institution for corruption and political capture. In April 2018, Global Witness published an investigation titled “Capture on the Nile: South Sudan’s state-owned oil company, Nilepet, has been captured by the country’s predatory elite and security services” (Global Witness, 22 April 2018, https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/south-sudan/capture-on-the-nile/ ). The report concludes that Nilepet had effectively become an opaque financial vehicle for powerful elites around President Salva Kiir and the security sector, with millions of dollars flowing off-budget and very little public accountability.
International financial institutions have reinforced this picture. The International Monetary Fund’s “Staff Report for the 2019 Article IV Consultation” on the Republic of South Sudan (IMF Country Report No. 19/153, 24 April 2019, https://www.elibrary.imf.org/downloadpdf/view/journals/002/2019/153/002.2019.issue-153-en.pdf) explicitly raises concerns about the lack of transparency in Nilepet’s financial operations and calls for an independent audit of the company’s accounts. The World Bank, in its economic assessments such as “Directions for Reform: A Country Economic Memorandum for Recovery and Resilience in South Sudan” and subsequent South Sudan Economic Monitor reports (for example, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstreams/4677272d-16c3-5da0-b7f5-280e98fbef61/download), similarly highlights governance weaknesses in the oil sector and the opacity of state-owned enterprises.
These international sources establish that Nilepet is structurally exposed to abuse: it operates at the intersection of oil revenue, political power and security financing, with weak oversight. This context is essential to understand why current scandals around management and corruption resonate so strongly.
Labour unrest and breakdown of trust under Ayuel Ngor Kacgor
Since President Salva Kiir appointed Eng. Ayuel Ngor Kacgor as Managing Director in October 2024, internal relations at Nilepet have sharply deteriorated. In June 2025, the independent South Sudanese outlet Radio Tamazuj reported that Nilepet employees in Juba launched a sit-in strike to demand the Managing Director’s removal over alleged mismanagement, unpaid wages and suspended benefits. The article “Nilepet employees strike over unpaid wages, benefits” (Radio Tamazuj, 10 June 2025, https://www.radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/nilpet-employees-strike-over-unpaid-wages-benefits) quotes staff representatives describing at least three months without pay, the removal of food rations and unexplained delays in allowances.
The following day, journalist Awan Achiek of The Dawn newspaper in Juba published a more detailed account in English under the headline “Oil Firm Nilepet in Turmoil as Staff Push to Sack MD” (The Dawn, 11 June 2025, https://thedawn.com.ss/2025/06/11/oil-firm-nilepet-in-turmoil-as-staff-push-to-sack-md/). In that article, Achiek cites the Staff Workers’ Trade Union at Nilepet, which accuses Eng. Ayuel Ngor of mismanaging the company, ignoring staff demands, and treating Nilepet as though it were his private business. Union figures allege that he has appointed relatives to key positions and expanded the payroll without securing the resources to pay employees, deepening mistrust between management and staff.
By late August 2025, Radio Tamazuj reported that the situation had worsened. In the piece “South Sudan oil company boss avoids office as pay stops” (Radio Tamazuj, 26 August 2025, https://www.radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/south-sudan-oil-company-boss-avoids-office-as-pay-stops), journalists describe how staff accuse the Managing Director of deliberately avoiding Nilepet’s headquarters to escape confrontation over unpaid salaries and suspended benefits. Employees interviewed by the outlet claim that some colleagues have died of treatable illnesses, children have been withdrawn from school and families have been evicted because wages have not been paid since April.
In these reports by Awan Achiek and by the anonymous reporters of Radio Tamazuj, Nilepet’s leadership is portrayed as either unwilling or unable to address a deepening social and financial crisis inside the company. Requests for comment to Nilepet’s public relations department are reported as unanswered or denied in general terms, which has further fuelled suspicion.
Mass dismissals, funding questions and governance concerns
The crisis escalated again in early September 2025. The Juba-based English newspaper The City Review published a detailed article by reporter Ajah Jennifer titled “NilePet staff demand removal of Managing Director amid contract termination allegations” (The City Review, 5 September 2025, https://www.cityreviewss.com/nilepet-staff-demand-removal-of-managing-director-amid-contract-termination-allegations/). Jennifer’s reporting reveals that more than 55 employees, including senior officials, had been dismissed through a circular issued from the Managing Director’s office.
According to the workers and union leaders interviewed in The City Review, these dismissals targeted employees who had spoken out about corruption and salary arrears, rather than being based on transparent performance criteria. Union official Santino Nyuon Garang is quoted as saying that Nilepet’s workforce has allegedly grown from around 2,600 to more than 5,600 under the current leadership, even as the company has failed to honour basic salary obligations. He and other staff argue that this pattern of hiring looks more like political patronage than rational management.
The same article points to an even more troubling claim. Internal sources allege that funds earmarked for staff salaries may have been diverted by “senior operatives” to unspecified “national programs.” Although Ajah Jennifer clearly notes that this allegation is not proven, its appearance in a South Sudanese newspaper with named union figures and detailed testimony underscores how far trust in the company’s financial governance has collapsed.
In parallel, other reporting by The City Review on the psychological impact of unpaid salaries describes Nilepet employees pushed to the brink of suicide and highlights the company’s effort to delegitimise the workers’ union by labelling it illegal and politically motivated. This reinforces the image of a leadership more focused on breaking internal dissent than on rebuilding confidence and transparency.
Whistleblower allegations of money-laundering and luxury assets
Beyond South Sudan’s borders, further allegations have appeared in the Kenyan investigative outlet Nyakundi Report. On 27 April 2025, a writer identified as DM published an article titled “Whistleblowers Expose Deepening Crisis Within South Sudan’s Nile Petroleum Corporation as CEO Linked to Financial Mismanagement and Money Laundering” (Nyakundi Report, 27 April 2025, https://nyakundireport.com/whistleblowers-expose-deepening-crisis-within-south-sudans-nile-petroleum-corporation-as-ceo-linked-to-financial-mismanagemen-and-money-laundering/).
In that piece, DM cites anonymous whistleblowers who accuse Eng. Ayuel Ngor Kacgor of presiding over severe financial mismanagement, with salary delays of up to four months, and of using his position at Nilepet to divert company resources for personal benefit. Most strikingly, the whistleblowers claim that the Managing Director has acquired a luxury mansion in the Karen suburb of Nairobi worth around two million US dollars, allegedly registered in his wife’s name, and they suggest that this may amount to money-laundering. The article calls for South Sudan’s Anti-Corruption Commission and Kenya’s Assets Recovery Agency to investigate Nilepet’s finances and the origins of this property.
It must be underlined that these specific money-laundering allegations are based on anonymous sources and have not yet been corroborated by court proceedings or official judicial investigations in either South Sudan or Kenya. Nevertheless, when read alongside the labour unrest documented by Radio Tamazuj and the detailed testimonies compiled by journalists such as Awan Achiek and Ajah Jennifer, they contribute significantly to the perception that Eng. Ayuel Ngor’s tenure at Nilepet is heavily tainted by corruption allegations.
Political oversight and community tensions
Domestic political institutions have begun to react, albeit cautiously. In a report by the newsroom of Sudans Post titled “Parliament backs Maluth amid disputes with Ministry of Petroleum, Nilepet” (Sudans Post, 4 August 2025, https://www.sudanspost.com/parliament-backs-maluth-amid-disputes-with-ministry-of-petroleum-nilepet/), the National Legislative Assembly’s Committee on Petroleum is described as siding with community representatives from Maluth County, who accuse the Ministry of Petroleum and Nilepet of marginalisation and failure to honour agreements over leadership positions in the oil-producing area.
According to Sudans Post’s reporting, tensions between Maluth youth leaders and Nilepet officials, including the Managing Director, have led to confrontational meetings and accusations that the company disregards local concerns. These disputes, combined with the internal labour crisis, underline how governance issues at Nilepet risk translating into wider political and security instability in oil-producing regions.
A leadership tainted by corruption allegations
For South Sudan’s international partners, the situation raises pressing questions. Oil revenues remain indispensable for the country’s recovery, yet the principal vehicle for managing those revenues is widely perceived as compromised. Until Nilepet’s accounts are independently audited, its management structures reformed, and its dealings with staff and communities normalised, the company will continue to symbolise the broader crisis of governance and corruption in South Sudan, and its current leadership will remain associated with those unresolved scandals.