Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed chairs cabinet meeting at his office
By Liban Obsiye
Thursday, September 4, 2014
For the best part of the month of August, Somali government departments have been frantically working on presenting their last six months achievements before the Prime Minister’s office and representatives from the Ministry of Planning. There were slide shows, oral presentation, paper reports and even a few poems accompanying verbal reasoning before a tough and independent body of analysts who asked many difficult questions of senior Ministry staff such as Permanent Secretaries, Policy advisers and Deputy Ministers. This is to be followed very shortly by Ministerial presentations backing up the early process before motion prone parliamentarians who distrusts them at the best of times.
The process of auditing all the Somali Ministries was initiated and led by the Prime Minister and not as many thought, NGO’s, the United Nations or donor nations. This was a home grown policy which was welcomed by all stakeholders including individual ministry staff who were given targets for improvement for the next six months which they must report back on before another tough, inquisitive panel in the near future.
Rebuilding a country which has experienced one of the worst and longest civil wars in recent history is not an easy task and accountability, transparency and coordination at the highest levels is needed to cut waste and to kick start and push forward new Ministerial agendas based on these principles. The period of simply being a Minister without portfolio seems to be over as the next round of audits and inspections of all departments will be set again soon.
The process of audit and inspection, albeit basic at present, communicates positively to the world that Somalia is slowly turning the corner. The key concern of the donor nations has always been trust: can we trust Somalis to deliver for themselves? Are they able to understand the importance of accountability and if so, what have they done thus far to show this? Until this initiative there was never a wide scale ministerial accountability strategy and most ministers and departmental heads were the rulers of their fiefdoms. However, today this process has challenged them to connect their work to the wider developmental goals of the nation by specifically stating what they have achieved in the last six months and how this is working towards achieving the government’s highly priced 2016 agenda. This very direct and public challenge will no doubt have many long term institutional development outcomes if it continues and it will be cemented into the processes and practice of government.
What was most impressive about this round of audits and inspections was that there were so many young, educated people involved in the process and in some parts, leading it. These young people who were employed by the Prime Minister’s office and by the Ministry of Planning were certainly no friends of the department’s leaders and grilled them mercilessly on issues ranging from effectiveness to future plans. This is a major sign of hope for Somali institutional development and reform as it illustrates that the next generation not only understand the notion of responsibility, but also expect their leaders to adhere to it and deliver for their country. The missing checks and balances of the past in Somali politics which used clan as a shield, arguably, has little future if this process continues. The processes of audit and inspections other valuable contribution to Somali public administration today is that it promotes internal competition to the top between ministries and their leaders who will understand that, inevitably, their work has to fit in with the national agenda in order for it to have much meaning and continuity. This can easily be the dawn of joint government working and cooperation that is crucial to the strengthening of the fragile state institutions.
Institutional memory, capacity building, archiving, leadership and positive competition and collaboration have all been encouraged by this round of ministry audits but this does not mean the entire process was perfect and can’t be improved. Among the imperative but absent aspect of the reports for all ministries was the assessment of human capital, employee performance, training as well as credible financial projections. These need to be included in the next round of reports and certainly, in the ministerial presentations before parliament soon as they themselves are indicators of holistic institutional progress and capacity. Another crucial but missing aspect of this entire process was the public engagement and communication. The auditing of ministries was well known and circulated in government and NGO circles but very little feedback was provided to the public. This is a grave mistake as it undermines the entire purpose of the process which is to rebuild public trust in Somali politics and public institutions and politicians. In the next round of audits and inspections, the government needs to devise a mechanism for involving the public and civil society as this is easily the most legitimate and important means of external review available today.
Critics have labelled the internal audit and inspection exercise undertaken by the Prime Minister’s office and the Ministry of Planning as nothing more than a public relations stunt. However, speaking to those involved in the process, this criticism is far from credible as all felt challenged to achieve and collaborate with other ministries in the future to improve the services they offer the public. A potential weakness of the ministerial audits that have caused concern is that most feel, due to the 4.5 system of ministerial appointments, no minister can be sacked for poor performance. This maybe the case but rushing to sack ministers and staff was never the intended purpose of the review. Instead what the process has rightly encouraged was partnership, knowledge sharing and promoting best practice between government ministries. This, for a poor post conflict nation slowly recovering from a near quarter century of civil war, is the best outcome in the long term.
Looking around wider society, it is evident that a culture of social responsibility and accountability is returning to public servants. Policemen insist on checking Identification badges in government offices and public spaces, immigration staff at Mogadishu airport encourage travellers not to pay bribes and all official government salaries are paid from the Central Bank only to those who are registered and actually working.
The process of auditing and reviewing the achievements of individual government ministries is a step in the right direction which can only be built upon in the future. It is the clearest sign that Somalia is ready to turn the corner and address its past demons which crippled it with war, corruption and ultimately poverty and shame. Despite all these positive signs, things can easily go wrong if this process is not promoted and continued with the support of the most senior members of government, civil society and the public.
The author welcomes comments and feedback. He can be contacted via the below means: [email protected]