According to government records examined by Somaliland Chronicle, Somaliland is spending lavishly to cover the living expenses of top government officials including the Chairmen of Senate and House of Representatives and various high ranking government officials.
President Bihi at Somaliland Parliament for the Annual State of the Union address
Expenses include over 160,000 US dollars for a house being built for the Chairman of the House of Representatives Hon. Bashe Mohanmed Farah complete with own private electric generator. In addition to the house, Somaliland government has spent additional 10,000 US dollars to cover the rent and domestic help expenses for Hon. Bashe for fiscal year 2019.
Efforts to locate officials tender for the home being constructed for Chairman Bashe’s were unsuccessful.
While the expense on Chairman of the Parliament and the new house being constructed for him stand out, Somaliland Senate and specially the Chairman Hon. Saleban Mohamud Adan and other senate leadership is a close second who are also getting their most basic expenses covered such as rent, water, electricity and internet usage to the tune of thousands of dollars a month.
On the Executive Branch, there is nearly 20,000 US dollars spent to cover the rent expenses for couple of Ministers of Justice, Constitutional Affairs and Information and National Guidance. This includes rent for the former Minister of Justice Mr. Cabdirisaq Ali Abdi Salah who was removed on December 2, 2019.
In Somaliland where an average Grade A government employee makes a little over a hundred dollars, it is unclear if living expenses are part of these officials’ compensation package and if lavish package is codified by any existing legislation. It is also unclear why these perks are not consistent.
Mosques across Somaliland are still open and packed despite a confusing order from National Preparedness Committee for COVID19 on April 13th that asked the public to perform prayers in their homes but stopped short of ordering the mosques to be closed.
The lack of clarity on the status of the mosques led to a widespread confusion where some religious leaders rejected the order altogether stating that stopping international flights and banning khat import should be prioritized over shuttering of mosques.
The Director General of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments has since held a press conference and read a statement from the Minister to try to clarify the specific order concerning mosques and stated that the order did not order the closure of the mosques but that the public were informed to perform prayers in their homes.
Statement from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowment
Although the Ministry of Religious Affairs tried to clarify that mosques have not been ordered to close, it failed to clear up confusion surrounding the government’s actual position to prevent large gathering including prayer at mosques.
Islam’s two hollies sites closed for worshipers due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In the same confusing directive from April 13th, National Preparedness Committee for COVID19 has also issued a guideline regarding the number of passengers on various types of public transportation including buses and taxis.
The Committee has set various limits for in-city transportation such as taxis and auto rickshaw known as bajaaj and a limit of 50% capacity for all long distance transportation.
It is unclear what scientific basis if any, the Committee has used to achieve the public transportation limits which fall below the 6 feet or roughly 2 meters recommended for social distancing.
The Committee has instructed public transportation owners to maintain current price levels but did not specify if the government will cover some of the lost income.
Khat Import
cant touch this!
Although the Committee has met with a group of khat importers few days ago who seemed to welcome the idea of total ban of khat in Somaliland, so far no decision has been made whether to ban khat imports.
The clearest sign that Somaliland government does not intend to ban khat import from Ethiopia came from he Minister of Information and National Guidance by stating that the government does not have the capacity or the resources to enforce a total ban of khat.
Khat is currently imported by few individuals and may not require a large scale intervention to prevent smuggling but if unclear why Somaliland government is considering the economic impact of banning one of the largest source of tax in Somaliland.
In addition to Khat, Minister Saleban Ali Koore, the Minister of Information and National Guidance also spoke about arriving flights and the fact that there no arriving passengers but rather departures. This is in inaccurate as we have confirmed that there are still arriving passengers also Ethiopian Airlines flight schedule is limited.
No further cases of COVID-19 has been confirmed by the Ministry of Health Development since April 13th announcement of additional 3 cases raising the total to 5.
Efforts to reach Minister Koore and other members from the COVID-19 Committee were unsuccessful.
The Ministry of Health Development announced three additional cases of COVID-19 in Somaliland, two in Hargeisa and one in Borama in addition to the two previously confirmed cases.
No additional details were announced about the patients including age, sex and their current status as well as contact tracing information.
The announcement came from hastily convened press conference by the Minister of Health Development and the Director General. So far, the COVID-19 committee has not commented on the new cases.
No steps have been taken yet to curb large public gathering in Somaliland. International flights by Ethiopian Airlines, khat import from Ethiopia, public transportation such as taxis and buses as well as mosques are still operational.
This is a developing story and we will update as we receive more details.
As part of the COVID-19 prevention and preparedness, the Ministry of Health Development created a detailed preparedness and response plan that will cost a little over 15 million US dollars.
Using China as a scenario modelling the plan assumes that 6,800 people might be infected by COVID-19 Somaliland with majority of the patients who require hospitalization and critical care are those above 60 years.
Efforts to reach the Minister of Health Hon. Omar Ali Abdillahi and the Director General Mr. Mohamed Abdi Hergeye for more information were unsuccessful.
On Thursday April 9th, the President of the Republic of Somaliland, HE Muse Bihi Abdi sacked the Manager of Hargeisa Group Hospital Dr. Yassin Abdi Arab and reappointed the former manager that he replaced a little over a year ago.
According to high ranking official at Hargeisa Group Hospital Dr. Yassin informed them on Thursday of the President’s decision that he has been replaced effective immediately and that he will handover to his successor Dr. Ahmed Omar Askar.
In his second short tenure at Hargeisa Group Hospital, Dr. Yassin is said to have made multiple staff changes with minimal consultation with others and has recently added 16 new qualified nurses to hospital staff.
Sources say that the newly recruited nurses were the source of an administrative dispute as they were not not from the available pool of volunteer workforce that should be prioritized for employment. According to sources, this has been resolved where subordinates have yielded to Dr. Yassin.
Asked if the recent loss of life due to lack of oxygen at Hargeisa Group Hospital might be the reason for Dr. Yassin’s abrupt termination, sources stated that the oxygen equipment has been operating past its operational lifespan and that the President was aware of the situation.
In trying to answer why the President would reappoint the same manager he has fired a little over a year ago, sources indicated that Dr. Askar being a respiratory specialist and his involvement with the COVID-19 committee might be the reason for why President Bihi has picked him to lead Hargeisa Group Hospital again.
Dr. Yassin is a founding member of Manhal hospital, one of the largest privately owned hospitals in Somaliland. It is unclear if this affected his performance in Hargeisa Group Hospital or was a factor in President Bihi’s decision to terminate him.
Efforts to reach Dr. Yassin and Askar were unsuccessful. Additionally, calls to the Minister of Health, the Director General and the Presidency were not answered.
The Republic of Somaliland received its first shipment of medical aid from the United Arab Emirates today. The heavy Ilyushin Il-76TD Russian transport plane touched down on Egal International Airport in the early morning hours loaded with medical supplies intended for COVID-19 pandemic.
Guddida ka hortaga iyo u diyaargarowga xanuunka COVID19 waxa ay dowladda Imaaratka Carabta deeq ka guddoomeen kaalmo caafimaad ah muhiim u ah ka tortaga faafitaanka xanuunka #COVID19.#UAE#Somalilandpic.twitter.com/c3NpQKTMzF
— National Preparedness Committee for COVID19 (@NPCCOVID19) April 8, 2020
The shipment of medical supplies from the UAE was received by the Ministers of Health, Finance, Religious Affairs and Endowment and the Director of Civil Aviation Commission. There was no immediate information available on the exact content and the size of the aid from the United Arab Emirates.
The transport plane carrying medical aid has also landed in Bossasso, the capital of Puntland region of neighboring Somalia where it has delivered similar aid to Puntland authorities.
No additional cases of COVID-19 has been identified in Somaliland since March 31st when the Minister of Health Hon. Omar Abdillahi Ali announced two cases, a Chinese national and a Somaliland citizen who returned from the UK.
Somaliland government has taken a number of steps in COVID-19 prevention including the acquisition of a diagnostics lab as announced by the National Preparedness Committee for COVID19 on social media yesterday.
We have acquired the Covid-19 Diagnostic lab which will be arriving in the coming few days & trained Lab professionals for testing.
Republic Of #Somaliland is ready to help the neighboring war torn countries including Somalia and Yemen in testing the swaps of their patients. pic.twitter.com/zKSl2es7s9
— National Preparedness Committee for COVID19 (@NPCCOVID19) April 7, 2020
In this series, we will examine inefficiencies and duplication of efforts in our government, where multiple agencies perform similar and sometimes exact functions and often compete for resource.
We will be looking at this long standing tradition in Somaliland where critical functions that should be part of a unified system are sliced off as a separate and independent agencies that affect service delivery and create a bureaucratic maze for citizens.
In Somaliland, instead of sacking an under performing official or bringing institutional change to a ministry, the solution is often to create an independent government institution that performs the exact same function.
In this series, we will examine one of the factors that keeps Somaliland government agencies at embryonic state.
Endless Reboot
In Somaliland, a government reshuffle usually dominates the news cycle but ever wonder what happens to ongoing work and projects in the pipeline when a Minister, Deputy Minister or a Director General is is replaced in Somaliland? They leave behind a trail of unfinished business and unfulfilled promises.
In fact, its a rarity for ongoing work to be discussed at handover ceremonies where a successor will immediately embrace their new role with a gusto and praises heaped on the outgoing official as a consolation prize.
According to a presidential appointee who spoke to the Chronicle on condition of anonymity about the lack of institutional knowledge and transfer of vital information from one official to the next “At the signing ceremony, I was given a list of chairs, number of staff, vehicles which most were deemed out of operation and mundane information but I was unable to locate anything of value to continue the work of my predecessor. Essentially, I had to start from scratch“.
In many cases the new appointee goes out of their way to ensure their predecessor’s work is shelved and ensure that all blame is assigned to them even if issues arise from things they are currently working on. Such was the case with singing of a salt production project by the current Minister of Investment that resulted in the concession of huge swath of land in Berbera.
One can argue that the heads of various agencies being political appointee are of little consequence to the the internal mechanics of an agency but in Somaliland the Minister, Deputy Minister and at times the Director General are the stars of the show and all that matter and their dismissal or replacement can shift agency’s priority to that of the incoming officials. This creates lack of institutional memory and keeps vital government agencies at constant embryonic state.
In his latest reshuffle, President Bihi in another major reshuffle swapped the Ministers of Water Resources and Information, and sent the former Minister of Livestock and Fisheries Development to head the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. This is a seismic and disruptive shift but more importantly what happened to everything these ministers were working on? No one knows.
Who is keeping track?
Hint: No one
A government agency is very complex and especially in Somaliland where other considerations besides qualification are a factor in picking the head of a ministry or a government institution, there is simply no metrics in place to keep track of work and most agencies simply wonder from one seminar to another to ensure funding from a donor is spent on time with little regard to actual value.
Although the Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Commission is very active and participates in many government functions and its officials handout awards and has held seminars in the past, the agency does not seem to be involved in facilitating transition between government appointees and has even less to do with anti-corruption.
Many current and former appointees concede that the hiring process does not present an opportunity for a smooth transition especially from an outgoing official who has been pushed out.
Almost every government agency has an alphabet soup of UN and International Agencies attached to it to fill the vacuum of inefficiency in Somaliland government where many of them freely operate in Somaliland while treating it as an entity of Somalia and driving important development agenda.
Lack of tangible progress in many sectors such as infrastructure, roads, urban planning, justice and much more is a direct result of lack of metrics to measure success and constant reinvention of the wheel by who ever happens to be at the helm.
This issue is even more glaringly visible in some vital sectors such as foreign policy that seem to have regressed from one government to the next and seems to be less active in President Bihi’s current tenure.
The Ministry of Telecommunications and Technology Dr. Abdiweli Abdulahi Sufi, in a press released announced the unveiling of video conferencing technology and was successfully tested with a cabinet meeting attended remotely by all Somaliland ministers.
The statement from the Ministry of Technology added that it has been engaged in implementing technologies to ensure government continuity due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The statement did not mention if the technology will be available to all government workers.
The new platform unveiled by the Ministry of Telecommunication and Technology is from Microsoft and is part of the Office 365 offering.
Somaliland government has been behind the technology curve and does not offer online citizen services although the Minister of Technology Hon. Sufi has recently stated that his ministry is working on an e-government platform.
Unrecognized, under-resourced and with virtually non-existent public healthcare system, is Somaliland ready for the COVID-19 global scourge that have brought global superpowers to their knees? Can Somaliland survive this global pandemic and are the public taking this modern day black-death seriously?
Although there are only two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Somaliland, the government has early on created a high level committee chaired the Vice President HE Abdirahman Abdallahi Ismail Saylici to coordinate the government’s response to the pandemic and have since its inception has issued a number of directives to the public.
Some of the early measures include dismissal of all public and private schools in Somaliland and closure of all government offices with the exception of essential staff. The government has also banned flights from multiple countries, although Ethiopian Airlines is still making regular flights to Egal International Airport.
The Ministry of Education and Science in collaboration with Somaliland National Television and Telesom has started telecasting classes remotely to students.
The COVID-19 committee has been updating the public regularly and some of its members such as the Minister of Information and Guidance Hon. Saleban Ali Kore has been very candid about the threat of the corona virus and implored the public to take it seriously.
Corona Virus waa khatar kula joogta taxadirkaaga badi. Adigu is ilaali oo dadka kale ilaali.Ku dedaal nadaafadda gacmahaga.
Wash your hands frequently.
Avoid touching your eyes, mouth & nose.
Cover your mouth & nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. pic.twitter.com/aqvHsz61rJ
Public awareness programs are also on high-gear including a recorded COVID-19 message that replaced telephone dial tone.
President Bihi has also ordered the immediate release of 574 prisoners to lighten the load on overcrowded prisons ahead of the arrival of the corona virus in Somaliland.
Despite many commendable measures from the government, there are gaping holes in Somaliland’s defense and preparedness against COVID-19, particularly in areas of khat import and packed social spaces such as mosques.
There is still no visible change in public behavior, however, where many establishments with large crowds are still open and public transportation consisting mainly of buses and taxis are running and mosques are still packed. Simply put one of the most basic measures of preventing the spread of COVID-19 such as social distancing are not being practiced.
Public sentiment towards the virus is mixed, where many view it as a scourge that is only plaguing non-muslim countries, despite ample evidence to the contrary but there is a prevailing nonchalant attitude.
Basic economic arithmetic makes measures implemented by many countries to break the infection chain of COVID-19 including mandatory stay-at-home and self isolation measures impossible in Somaliland.
Even abroad, Somali people in general have been one of the most affected groups in certain countries such as Sweden, and although Somalis are thought to be fewer than 40,000, at the initial stages of the infection in that country have suffered more than 50% fatality rate. This is due to social norms and unwillingness to practice social distancing and other preventative measures.
A major area of concern that makes Somaliland particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 pandemic is the state of its emergency preparedness and its meager strategic reserves of basic necessities such as food, medicine and fuel that may not last more than few days.
Healthcare in Somaliland is so basic that there is no national Health Information System or an early warning system to track and monitor infectious disease. In the past when Cholera outbreak in 2017 affected communities in Somaliland, the government response was uncoordinated and inadequate that it cost many lives
We are proud to take part in the delivery of medical supplies donated by Jack Ma foundation and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed initiative. The mission will also continue in the coming days.#Ethiopian. pic.twitter.com/Thm37IzN0b
Somaliland is in a unique position among world countries due to its unrecognized status and in a perilous time where the United States, the United Kingdom and other European countries are struggling to cope with this pandemic, it is being excluded from receiving basic medical necessities to combat the virus.
While it is disingenuous for anyone to expect Somaliland government to achieve a miracle against COVID-19 where the most powerful nations have failed but the most important tasks that Somaliland government is failing at the moment are
Clearly communicate the lethality of COVID-19 to the public
Ban khat import from Ethiopia
Stop international flights
Minimize public gathering including mosques.
Ensure adequate strategic reserve of medicine, fuel and food.
Somaliland Chronicle is responsible for the content of this editorial.
Somaliland Women and Child Development Organization (NOW) was established in 1997 by the former First Lady Ms. Kaltun Haji Dahir, the spouse of late President Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal, as a governmental organization that delivers critical aid to vulnerable women and children.
NOW describes itself as “… a constitutional non-partisan voluntary organization, which has been founded by a group of dedicated women who have been inspired by the poor living conditions of the Somaliland women and children in June 1997 in Hargeisa Somaliland.” on its Facebook page.
This organization, while not established with a presidential decree, is a quasi-governmental organization with deep ties to the successive first ladies of Somaliland since its establishment.
According to a recent statement from Minister of Employment, Family and Social Affairs Ms. Hinda Jama Gani who cited constitutional articles, NOW comes under the Ministry of Employment, Family and Social Affairs.
Minister Hinda Jama Gani flanked by NOW Chairwomen Ms Halima Haji Abdi and Spokesperson
Government records show that NOW has received over $110,000.00 US Dollars from the Somaliland government in 2019. Records show that almost all of NOW’s operational expenses including rent, utilities, and staff salaries are covered by the Somaliland government.
Fast forward to 2020, and the organization has grown by leaps and bounds and is implementing large-scale projects that include food distributions from World Food Program to internally displaced people among other activities that include literacy and home education programs held at their headquarters in Hero-Awr neighborhood in Hargeisa.
A sign in front of NOW office.
According to people familiar with the project, NOW is implementing the second phase of food distribution by the World Food Programme to even more internally displaced families in Hargeisa. The registration round of potential recipients just concluded.
One of the main complaints from former and current participants of the project is a $20 fee that NOW assesses all participants. A fee that the intended target group of internally displaced persons can hardly afford.
Minister of Employment, Family and Social Affairs Hon. Hinda Jama Gani
UN and International NGOs generally allocate a management fee to cover the implementation cost. It is unclear why now needed to collect an additional $13,960 from displaced families.
Program participants also allege that many of the people who took part in the previous round of food distribution to IDPs were not displaced and that the organization issued multiple ration cards to some of its members, which includes women currently serving in President Muse Bihi Abdi’s cabinet.
Sources who did not want to speak on the record for fear of retribution did not point to a particular government official add that some of these officials have their ration cards issued in their names and photos.
Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Livestock Development Ms. Yurub Abib Abdi
Before being appointed to be the Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Livestock Development, Ms. Yurub Abib Abdi served as the Deputy Chairperson of NOW. There is no evidence that she has resigned from her position.
There are multiple IDP camps in Somaliland, including one in the capital that hosts thousands of families. It is unclear if any of the people in the IDP camps are participating in this program.
Sources tell Somaliland Chronicle that in the current round of food distribution program, NOW has attempted to cut more corners by assigning one ration card to two families, essentially halving the amount of cash intended for each internally displaced family.
Although WFP did not reply to question regarding irregularities with the project, sources familiar with ongoing deliberation state that WFP has rejected changes that NOW attempted to make to the card per family ratio and that the project will proceed with one ration card per family.
It is unclear if WFP is aware of other allegations, including the possibility of NOW is issuing ration cards to people who are not displaced and possibly government officials.
Mr. Mohamed Mahamoud, NOW Operations Manager.
NOW’s Chairwomen Ms. Halima Haji Abdi and Mr. Mohamed Mahamoud, the operations person who directly managed the project, did not respond to multiple phone calls and text messages seeking answers to the allegation against NOW.
Mr. Mohamoud has not shown up for work for weeks. It is unclear if Mr. Mohamoud’s absence is related to issues with this project.
Many Somaliland government entities including NOW and the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Employment, Family and Social Affairs receive direct funding from United Nations and other International Organizations that at times rivals of exceeds their allocated budget but does not go through the Ministry of Finance‘s PFM system and other control mechanisms.
