According to multiple sources, the Director-General of the Ministry of Education and Science Mr. Abdirisaq Jama Nur (Nakhude), has stopped payments on multiple transactions totaling over 64,000. Sources add that the expenditure’s nature was questionable, and the funds were reallocated from accounting sub-heads without the proper procedures that include approval from the Accountant General or the Ministry of Finance.
Sources add that the new Director General who was recently reassigned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has been trying to track down multiple stamps that were used to authorize expenditure and together with the Deputy Minister are trying to reign in more than 20 bank accounts in private banks.
Minister Diriye, whose appointment was initially welcomed as a disrupter who has removed layers of entrenched corruption and restructured the ministry operations, is now described by sources as a chaotic and erratic personality leading to even widespread corruption, nepotism, and disfunction at the Ministry of Education and Science.
The Minister of Education and Science Hon. Ahmed Mohamed Diriye Egeh is the co-owner of DARS Research—a private research firm, and although an effort was made to scrub the Minister’s name and all traces of the fact that it operates in Somaliland off the DARS Research website, multiple sources state that Minister Diriye is involved in the day-to-day operations of the firm and in ensuring that DARS receives funding and contracts.
The Ministry of Education and Science which receives millions of dollars in funding from the Global Partnership for Education and Education Cannot Wait has one of the highest turnovers of any ministry and sources from the Ministry and others from international organizations with a direct working relationship with the Ministry describe it as an environment rife with turf wars and corruption.
Many of the donor-funded projects for education in Somaliland are channeled through Safe the Children, Care International, and other international NGOs as implementing partners and do not award funds directly to the Ministry of Education. As a result, tens of millions of dollars from donors to the Ministry of Education and Science are hard to track as funds do not go through the Ministry of Finance Development and Somaliland Central Bank and instead are deposited in multiple accounts in private banks with minimal accountability and oversight.
Efforts to reach the Minister of Education and Science Hon. Ahmed Mohamed Diriye Egeh, the Deputy Minister and the Director General for comments were unsuccessful.