Somali porters offload goods from a vessel at the Mogadishu Port in April 2013. Some private sector firms have been accused of bribing government officials to avoid paying taxes at the port
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
After years of pervasive public perception that public resources are being squandered by officials and government agencies, Somalia's auditor general has taken unprecedented steps to fight systemic corruption.
Auditor General Nur Jimale Farah told Sabahi his office has devised a new plan to fight the unlawful use of public resources and the subsequent lack of accountability.
"My responsibility is to audit government agencies, monitor the national procurement [contracts] and ensure transparency so that public resources are not taken illegally. I took an oath not to deviate from that responsibility," said Farah, who was appointed by the cabinet in February.
There are three main areas of government where corruption and irregularities are prevalent, he said. These involve how educational scholarships are issued, the civil servant hiring system, and the improper use of government assets facilitated by poor or non-existent tracking and management systems.
For example, he said, his office is investigating individuals who served in previous administrations for failing to return vehicles that belonged to the ministries they served in.
"They just took them after they were relieved of their duties and rented them to private companies. They also took with them the office equipment they used for work when they were relieved of their duties," he said, urging the former government employees to return the assests before legal action is taken against them.
Private individuals who seek to unlawfully purchase land and properties owned by government agencies will also be punished, he said.
"We are telling each person who invests money in government land that they will be held responsible and will not be reimbursed for any money they spend on it," Farah said.
"The things that lead to corruption include the contracts that government agencies give to private companies unfairly without a bidding process," he said.
To curb these detrimental activities, the auditor general urged parliament to pass into law the National Audit Bill and the Procurement Bill. The bills already have been endorsed by the cabinet.
Greater accountability could lead to the arrest of senior government officials found guilty of taking undue advantage of public property, Farah said, urging lawmakers, government officials and elders to refrain from blindly defending their peers if they are arrested on such charges.
New plan to tackle corruption
The Auditor General's Office said it has designed a three-point strategy to reverse the culture of corruption that exists in government agencies and increase public engagement to prevent the misappropriation and misuse of public property.
The plan comprises seminars targeting youth expected to enter the workforce with the aim of developing strong work ethics and a better understanding of youths' role in creating and sustaining strong governmental institutions, Farah told reporters in Mogadishu last week announcing the plan.
Secondly, the agency will hold a series of training programmes for current government employees that will ensure their basic understanding of what constitutes corruption or graft and what to do to stop it, he said.
The third part of the strategy aims to raise public awareness through the media. "We ask the media […] to help us publish information related to how to fight corruption and how regular Somali citizens can help monitor national resources," he said.
Implementing the auditor general's recommendations could help significantly reduce public corruption, said Garad Yusuf, a finance and economics teacher at Mogadishu's Adult College, a private tertiary school for adults whose secondary education was interrupted due to the civil war and collapse of the central government.
"International donors always worry that the money the government receives is not spent as intended, and that has resulted in a mistrust of the nation's leaders," Yusuf told Sabahi. "This is the first time we are hearing this [kind of] talk, and if it is implemented it will foster trust among the Somali public and the governments that provide aid."
Somalia, tied with North Korea, ranked lowest in Transparency International's global Corruption Perceptions Index 2014, released earlier this month.
"That is something to be ashamed about," Yusuf said.
"We are asking the president [to implement] the six pillars he announced during his election campaign. They included an overhaul of the finance systems because we hear that corruption is still at the same level," he said.
The private sector is also part of the problem, because business owners bribe ministers and senior government officials with money and vehicles so they can import goods through the Mogadishu Port without paying taxes, said Bashir Mohamed, who worked at the port for two years before Turkish firmAlbayrak took control of the port's management in September.
Taking action to move Somalia forward
After Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed was ousted from his post on December 6th, Farah andAttorney General Ahmed Ali Dahir issued a directive banning cabinet officials from leaving the countrypending the results of an investigation into alleged corruption.
On Sunday (December 14th), the two appeared before parliament to answer questions about the directive.
Dahir said the decision to impose a temporary travel ban on cabinet members was taken after reports of corruption surfaced, according to Garowe Online.
"After investigations into the government ministries, we found that misappropriation of public funds became rife in 19 ministries and three agencies," he said.
He reiterated his support of the travel ban, saying it is important to enforce while ministries are in transition following Ahmed's ouster.
"If every person who is working is summoned in parliament or a motion is brought against them, the country cannot move forward," said 26-year-old Benadir University student Sofia Abdirahman.
Abdirahman criticised lawmakers for summoning the two officials, calling it an attempt to intimidate and discourage their work and that of other public servants who are trying to stop public graft.
"Parliament should have instead summoned the individuals who were suspected of misappropriating property," said Abdihakim Mohamed, 30, who sells personal electronics at a store on Maka al-Mukarrama Road.
If lawmakers continue to intimidate officials tasked with fighting corruption at the highest level of government with parliamentary summons, it will leave no one else to do the job on behalf of the Somali people, he said.