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Waagacusub.net – Auditor General Mohamed Ali alias Afgoi has revealed the disappearance of millions of dollars from key departments of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), which is likely to raise questions about government spending. In his report, Afgoi said 25 entities and three embassies had been audited. Unverified expenditure amounted to $9 million; contracts worth $31 million were not registered with the Auditor General’s Office and unauthorized bank accounts existed outside the Treasury’s single account.
Somalia’s Auditor General noted that $17 million in external aid had not yet been disbursed through the country’s single treasury account. Afgoye added that the federal member states and Banadir had not accounted for $78 million in funds received from the federal government.
According to him, the government raised $51 million to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, but only $15 million of it was used. He reported that the government lacked a comprehensive plan to coordinate the response to the pandemic, failed to prepare adequate isolation and treatment facilities, and failed to account for the disbursement of $3.9 million in COVID-19 funds to the regions.
Afgoi conducted his first audit of the fisheries sector. He found that fishing vessels were under-collecting $56 million in revenue. Over three years, the fisheries ministry issued licenses to 43 domestic companies, 15 cooperatives, and 83 foreign companies affiliated with China, collecting only $3.3 million.
Finally, Afgoi pointed out the lack of regulations to support the fisheries sector and the lack of monitoring and inspection of fishing vessels (which means there is no mechanism to accurately record the catch of Chinese fishing vessels). He also said there is a lack of laws on the sharing of fisheries revenue.
But the director of planning at the Fisheries Ministry, Abdullahi Addow, refuted the auditor-general’s report, adding that he had failed to discharge his duties expeditiously as required by the rule of law.
He claimed: “The report released today by the Attorney General’s Office on fisheries management is said to be misleading and used erroneous documents to determine the amount of $56 million that the ministry should have collected.”
Over the years, Somalia’s federal government’s spending in certain sectors has often been questioned, with the opposition accusing the government of misappropriating funds.
Outgoing Somalia’s president, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, has often defended his government on corruption issues.
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