South Sudan on Thursday rejected claims by a US-based watchdog that President Salva Kiir's family had built up a vast corporate empire in one of the world's poorest countries.
The Sentry group said it had mapped 126 Kiir family companies that span a range of industries "central" to the South Sudanese economy including mining, petroleum, banking, trade, aviation, private security and logistics.
"Given the scale and scope of this network, transparency is crucial to identifying whether these companies are being used for illicit means, especially given South Sudan's track record of corruption," it said in a report this week titled "Kiirdom".
"Kiir family-linked companies have repeatedly been identified in lists of companies involved in procurement scandals that have resulted in the loss of billions of dollars of public funds that should have been used to meet the basic needs of the South Sudanese people."
Kiir's office denounced The Sentry's claims as "baseless and malicious" and said South Sudan's constitution did not bar any citizen, including his relatives, from engaging in legitimate business.
"The allegations, presented as investigative findings, are nothing more than a deliberate witch-hunt designed to undermine the First Family and destabilise the nation's unity," it said in a statement.
The Sentry posted a huge trove of data on its platform, saying 23 members of Kiir's family had been shareholders of companies, including his wife Mary Ayen Mayardit and at least nine children and grandchildren, as well as his brother-in-law and his family.
But it said Kiir's name did not appear on any corporate documents it had identified.
South Sudan's transitional constitution, drawn up in 2011 after it gained independence from Sudan, says the president, ministers and other state officials must not engage in commercial business during their term in office.
The Sentry, co-founded by Hollywood star George Clooney, investigates corruption, money laundering and profiteering from conflict.
South Sudan is one of the poorest countries on the planet and ranks 177 out of 180 countries on Transparency International's corruption perceptions index.
Adding to its woes, it faces more political paralysis after Kiir delayed long-awaited elections by two years to December 2026, exasperating international partners.
The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan blamed the stalled transition on "corruption and systematic diversion of public funds", and said its investigations showed that revenues, especially from oil, "continue being grossly mismanaged to benefit political elites and their patronage networks".
South Sudan boasts plentiful oil resources, traditionally accounting for 90 percent of GDP, but the rupture of a key pipeline in war-torn neighbour Sudan in February has slashed vital revenues.
