Somalia parliament approves $340m budget for 2019 amid corruption claims

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia's lower house of parliament on Sunday gave the green light to a $340 million budget for next year following the reshuffle of the Finance committee, Garowe Online reports.

After two days of heated debate, the parliamentarians voted unanimously to approve the budget by a vote of 174 out of the 275-member national assembly with no rejection and abstentions.

The House of the People was under excessive pressure in the past few days from the Executive branch to pass the new budget by December 31 or risk its next year's expenditure.

The budget which was drafted by the Ministry of Finance contained the pension rights for the country’s retired servicemen and women. The bill has been endorsed in September 2017 by the cabinet ministers.

Last week, the speaker of the parliament, Mohamed Sheikh Mursal has reshuffled the parliamentary finance committee following division within its members that stalled operations of the house for weeks.

The immediate reshuffle followed a bombshell report by the Parliamentary Committee on Finance and Budget opened an inquiry into 'missing' funds amounting to about $42M.

The report which divided the leadership of the Lower House Chamber pointed fingers at Finance Minister Abdirahman Dualle Beileh over violation of budget regulations and misappropriation of funds.

Somali Government received $50 million from Saudi Arabia in 2017 and spent $30 million in that year and Beileh said it would carry forward to 2018 Financial year but has not reflected in the 2018 budget.

When summoned by the parliament and grilled over the missing $42m, Minister Abdirahman Beilleh, has not been able to provide any reason or explanation on how the funds 'disappeared'.

Banaadir Region Administration headed by Abdirahman Yarisow has been accused of corruption and put on notice to explain how $16.5m it received between January and June 2018 was spent.

In a country where hunger and poverty kill citizens, this is indeed a disheartening revelation, according to Ahmed Hajji, an economist based in Mogadishu, who spoke to Garowe Online.

Somalia held the undesirable title as the world's most corrupt country for the past two decades due to the lawlessness and weak government anti-corruption policy.

GAROWE ONLINE