KHARTOUM (Reuters) — The recent reshuffle of the government of south Sudan should improve its ability to confront the enormous task of rebuilding the oil region after decades of civil war, observers say.But some analysts said the changes announced by President Salva Kiir earlier this month, could have gone even further to curb corruption and speed up development in the economically important area. Since taking office, Kiir has sacked senior ministers, ordered wide-ranging corruption investigations, and even placed senior officials under house arrest because of graft accusations.

Many were surprised by his latest round of changes which saw prominent figures from the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which dominates the south Sudan government, removed from cabinet posts. Vice President Riek Machar was stripped of his additional housing and lands portfolio and Rebecca Garang, widow of former SPLA leader John Garang, was moved from the Roads and Transport Ministry to a post as presidential advisor on gender and human rights.

There have been no suggestions of corruption regarding Machar and Garang but some said other ministers, like former Finance Minister Arthur Akuein Chol, were removed because of their alleged involvement in graft. “The effect of these changes will probably be that his (Kiir’s) own position will be strengthened and it will bring new talent into the administration,” said Sudan expert John Ashworth. “Certainly many people will be encouraged at Salva’s attempts to root out corruption.”

Some companies, such as Gulf real estate development companies, have been wary of investing in the south citing a lack of security and efficient government structures. Larger oil companies were also discouraged from investing because of disputed contracts the SPLA had signed with oil exploration companies. The SPLA had sold Britain’s White Nile part of an oil block which already belonged to French giant Total.

Last week the Sudanese government resolved the dispute in favour of Total, which may also encourage more investment in the south. The January 2005 deal to end Africa’s longest war created a coalition government in Khartoum, wealth-sharing of Sudan’s oil found mostly in the south, and gave the south a vote on independence in a referendum by 2011. But some southerners say the newly created administration has been slow to offer services, especially in far-flung rural areas. Deep in a north-south civil war for all but 11 years since independence in 1956, the south has little infrastructure.

“The government is stable and together but lacks efficiency and performance,” said Pascal Bandini Uru, a member of Sudan’s parliament. Livio Bahara, a member of the southern parliament from west Bahr al-Ghazal region, said if anything the cabinet changes should have been more “dramatic”. “If someone has not performed well then why take him to another position where they might not perform well?” he said.

Analysts placed part of the blame for a lack of development in south Sudan on irregular flows of oil revenues from the northern government.

South Sudan’s annual budget of around $1.2 billion comes almost entirely from oil, and oil represents more than half the central government’s budget. A delay in the opening of a new oil pipeline left a budget shortfall last year for both north and south Sudan.

“The flow of money from the north has been below expectations,” Uru said.

Ashworth said the north was putting up obstacles to the implementation of the deal, but added the south was coping well.

“In many respects they’re doing OK, given the enormity of the task,” he said. “As well as setting up both a government and a political machine virtually from scratch, they’re still being forced to fight the war, by political rather than military means.”