Sunday, August 2, 2015
Press Release
The East African Energy Forum (EAEF) has announced it is in full support of the UK government’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into the SOMA deal with the Federal Government of Somalia.
The EAEF has agreed to provide its full support to the SFO in this investigation and hopes the result will be the termination of the contract and halting of all resource deals in Somalia until proper transparency and anti-corruption laws are passed in the country as advised by the UN.
The EAEF has advised the Somali and UK Governments, UN and various authorities against allowing this deal to come to fruition. It believes that this Soma deal sets a dangerous precedent and example on how Somalia intends to conduct national business.
As Somalia attempts to get back on its feet as a functioning and responsible government, these kinds of closed door deals that do not benefit the country will only work to prolong and complicate its recovery.
Abdillahi Mohamud, the director of the EAEF says the international authorities need to shut down these kind of deals in Somalia so that it does not regress into the practices of the past two decades.
“We originally warned the Somali people against this deal in 2013, and have attempted many times behind the scenes to derail this deal, simply for the fact that this is not a good deal for Somalia”
According to the EAEF, the precedent that this deal sets is even more dangerous to Somalia than the cash that is switching hands between Somali officials and SOMA.
“The Somali people have no appetite for Somali officials that have a timeline to pad their pockets by selling off national resources for penny’s on the dollar to equally opportunistic British companies. We call on the Somali Parliament to also open an independent investigation into the last two Ministers of National Resources that authorized and carried out this deal.” said Abdillahi Mohamud.
The EAEF is also calling on the UK government to deter British companies from taking advantage of Somalia’s nascent institutions and corrupt Somali officials as suspicion amongst Somalis is that the British are in Somalia only to make a profit explained Abdillahi Mohamud.
“Has the UK come to Somalia so that is can facilitate its companies in plundering Somalia’s resources? Were the London conferences and renewed British interest in Somalia just a cover for business interests? I don’t think so, but they need to come out in opposition of this kind of behavior from UK based companies.”