By Jamacow Sugow
Somalia is gearing up to its presidential election scheduled to take place on February 8, where more than a dozen presidential aspirants have thrown their hats into the contest. The irony is that whoever is elected come February 8, will find a country mired with mismanagement and an institutionalized public theft.
A recent report by Fartaag consultancy, cites that despite the several states in the federal republic of Somalia being represented in the Federal Parliament (former) by their respective MPs, their participation in government affairs is at a bare minimum. Cartels at the federal government are said to control all major arms of government and any legislation to be formulated has to be in the interests of the president and his corrupt cohorts. In view of this disparity in representation brought about by a lack of policy, it is safe to say that the president and his inner circle have assumed the entire management of the government.
The federal government of Somalia and the international community have until now failed to transform the Somali State due to several complexities, the most significant of them being budget resources management and institutional structures. The report points out deliberate deficiencies of the government in developing functional structures as well as developing accountable management controls that have led to conduits for budget diversions. As a major partner in state building in Somalia, it is not clear why the international community did not come on board to formulate budget control systems. Moreover, further investigations detailed in the report revealed that federal budget diversions were being instigated by multiple interest groups masquerading as social and community, religious and business groups. The international community has been soliciting development support to the country and the donor funds have never been factored into the national budget.
Additionally, it is worth noting that the multi lateral support received from the international community for the country’s development has never been made public knowledge , leading to raised eye brows as regards transparency and accountability. The report cites the strong presence of western led cartels like non state actors and NGOs across all sectors of the country’s transformation development program. The western led cartels, the report ascertains have held Somalia’s socio economic and security transformation stimuli at ransom, which by extension, clearly , appears to be their objective.
These occurrences obviously raise serious questions about the relationship between the federal government and the international community. There is the question of the non existence of a harmonized development policy for the country. The report basically sheds light on how the management of the national budget in Somalia has created two parallel governments consisting of the federal government and the international community.. This can be said to have occurred as a consequence of diversion of domestic revenue and the mismanagement of donor funds.
The Somali federal government has created an alternative government through funding non state actors rather than developing functioning government structures. We can now clearly see that the federal government prefers investing in non state actors because they have vested interests in them.
The diversion of funds, the report indicates, is intended to maintain the status quo and avoid accountability, Additionally the status quo is maintained by the international community which by itself, through embassies become a parallel government to the federal government. Moreover, the reports states that even after over 25 years of donor support to Somalia, the international community is yet to introduce policy formulations and control systems that would bring forth stable and flourishing government institutions. Rather than build government institutions , they have allocated much of their donor funds to non state actors without even holding them accountable. Part of their mandate should be working with the federal government and holding them accountable while concurrently being held accountable by the federal government , but unfortunately, that has not been seen to be happening.
Through out the years, the international community has been in denial regarding several issues which if analyzed correctly would prove to be significant policy redress to the transformation of governance in the country. For instance, according to the report by Fartaag consultancy group., there is clear evidence that substantial amount of donor funds have been diverted to private investments although this has staunchly been denied by the international community. Going by the above revelations, it is now crystal clear that the stagnation of Somalia as a state is not only because of Somalis but also due to lack of transparency and goodwill from the international community and the western world per se. Both the federal government and and the international community are guilty of serving their own interests and working in tandem to cover their own tracks.
More to that, the report proves as incorrect the argument that it was not possible to formulate policy guidelines for development due to insecurity and logistics due to the fact that the elements of government structures are in force. The report accuses the President of replacing the Somali government’s cabinet’s ability to drive financial policy with his cartel mates thus making him and his accomplices drivers of how the country spends its monies.
Interesting enough, the report has conclusively named one Mrs. Hodhan Osman, an adviser to the office of the finance executive in the federal government as playing a significant role in the diversion of public monies to be used for personal use and to serve special interest groups. Mrs. Osman is said to have been promised Harvard Fellowship in exchange for her silence and loyalty. Since the election of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the President of the federal republic of Somalia, there was public hope that the country would initiate all necessary budget control systems hence curbing financial malpractices.
From the numerous findings enumerated in the report, it is now evident that both the Somali federal government, in close cohorts with the international community and the western world are reasons why Somalia is a failed state. Both entities stand to benefit from the chaotic nature of the country, the constant state of confusion in the country is perfectly serving the interests, financially or otherwise, of the same entities that pretend to be interested in the goodwill of the country and its transformation.
Jamacow Sugow
Email: [email protected]
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