Investigative Reports

Ministry of Information Spends 600,000 US Dollars to Fix a Decade Old Radio Station

According to a contract signed by the Minister of Information, Culture...

How Somalia is trying to Stifle Somaliland – US ties with an Online Troll and a pseudo-Charitable Organization

In February, June, and  August 2022, Mr. Okeke-Von Batten filed Lobby Disclosure Act...

Ministry of Telecommunication and Technology Spent Tens of Thousands of Taxpayer Funds on Documents Plagiarized from the Internet

According to government records and agreements examined by the Somaliland Chronicle, The Ministry of Telecommunication and Technology has spent tens of thousands of dollars on multiple contracts for policy, awareness, and training documents copied from various online sources.

Documents show a frantic pace of spending towards the end of the 2022 where multiple contracts under 5,000 US dollars which falls threshold of National Tender Board requirement for public bid were awarded to various companies with the majority going to a company called Somali Software Engineering company.

In recent months, plagiarism has become a standard operating procedure for some government agencies and the latest to do so were the Ministries of Transportation and Health which released major policy documents that were plagiarized from Rwanda and Bangladesh.

In the case of the Ministry of Telecommunication and Technology, its documents for awareness, fiber optic, and postal service are riddled with spelling errors and were entirely copied or stitched together from various sources on the internet.

Some of the projects implemented in this period include the Postal Customer Service Policy document put together by ministry employees who have been compensated 5,000 US dollars for their effort despite being salaried government employees and their product being a copy of Kenya’s Postal Customer Service Guidelines. Email addresses and other identifying marks were not removed from the Kenyan Postal Services document to hide its origin. In addition, it cites laws and statutes that do not exist in Somaliland.

The awareness campaign and fiber optic training documents which the Ministry has funded and implemented by Somali Software Engineering, a company frequently used by the Ministry of Telecommunication and Technology, are elementary and lack technical depth. The most egregious case of plagiarism by the Somali Software Engineering company is the document titled “Excessive use of technology devices and their healthy impact” where a single paragraph seems to have been stitched from multiple sources that have nothing to do with one another and the ministry paid 5000 US dollars for it. 

Efforts to reach the Director General and other officials from the Ministry of Telecommunication and Technology about the review process of documents produced by consultants and qualifying processes to award contracts were unsuccessful.

Latest

Misconception on Las Anod Conflict in Somaliland at the UN Security Council

Press Release of Somaliland Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation...

In the Light of Upcoming Elections, Looking Back the Transition to Direct Elections in Somaliland

Somaliland transitioned from indirect to direct elections in 2002....

Newest Anti-Somaliland Front: Las Anod War

There are times when people lose touch with reality...

Sahamiye Foundation: Charity Founded by Somaliland Couple Enhancing Education

Sahamiye Foundation is the dream of Hargeisa entrepreneurs Ismail...

Stay Connected

Don't miss

Misconception on Las Anod Conflict in Somaliland at the UN Security Council

Press Release of Somaliland Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation...

In the Light of Upcoming Elections, Looking Back the Transition to Direct Elections in Somaliland

Somaliland transitioned from indirect to direct elections in 2002....

Newest Anti-Somaliland Front: Las Anod War

There are times when people lose touch with reality...

Sahamiye Foundation: Charity Founded by Somaliland Couple Enhancing Education

Sahamiye Foundation is the dream of Hargeisa entrepreneurs Ismail...

Garad Abdiqani’s Son Arrived in Hargeisa & Appealed to Sool insurgents to End Conflict

The intellectuals of the Sool community in Hargeisa gathered...

Misconception on Las Anod Conflict in Somaliland at the UN Security Council

Press Release of Somaliland Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation Ministry on UN Security Council’s June 7th Statement. The Government of the Republic of Somaliland welcomes...

In the Light of Upcoming Elections, Looking Back the Transition to Direct Elections in Somaliland

Somaliland transitioned from indirect to direct elections in 2002. Since then, it has successfully conducted two House of Representatives (HoR) elections in 2005 and...

Newest Anti-Somaliland Front: Las Anod War

There are times when people lose touch with reality and thus analyse, assess and interpret matters not as they are in real truth, but...