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Policy Brief: Addressing Corruption Challenges in Somalia

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Policy Brief: Addressing Corruption Challenges in Somalia Policy Brief: Addressing Corruption Challenges in Somalia POLICY NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL (NEC) Federal Government of Somalia Addressing Corruption Challenges in Somalia1 1. Introduction The corruption phenomena at any place is a complex phenomenon in which economic, social, cultural and political dimensions contribute. The motivations behind corrupt practice and extent it prevails at any society might vary, but the consensus is that this is corrosive self-motivated behavior. In the case of Somalia, corruption has been one of the leading causes and consequences of fragility and pervasive political instability. It is manifested at almost all levels of the public and private sectors and has become an expected form of behavior within most segments of society. It is prevalent in many aspects of economic and financial transactions of the society; from public officials’ misuse of public funds for private gain and solicitation of bribes in exchange for basic services, to the positions allocation and patronage networks (in the 4.5 clan- based power sharing) used to obtain appointments and access to resources. The Somali society has been affected by corruption, for prolonged a period, and this has constrained state- building efforts, undermined the pursuit and practice of democracy, human rights, and rule of law. In addition, it has contributed to normalization of criminal activities and contributed to endemic insecurity. In the circumstances, it is difficult to discern the causality if corruption is an inevitable result of lack of public control and poor governance, or that prevailing poor governance is a consequence of uncontrolled corruption. Once corruption becomes entrenched, its negative effects multiply. It induces cynicism, because people begin to regard it as the norm. It undermines social values because people find it easier and more lucrative to engage in corruption than to seek legitimate employment. It erodes governmental legitimacy because it hampers the effective delivery of public goods and services. It limits economic growth because it reduces the amount of public resources, discourages private investment and saving and impedes the efficient use of government revenue and development assistance funds.2 2. Situation analysis Somalia has faced prolonged state fragility, and many challenges associated with the poor governance that affects countries transitioning from conflict and instability and weakens the legitimacy of the state. Endemic 1 Lead contributors: Dr. Aues Scek and Dr. Ali Issa 2 G. Lawal “Corruption and Development in Africa: Challenges for Political and Economic Change; Humanity and Social Science Journal 1/7/2007 Policy Brief: Addressing Corruption Challenges in Somalia corruption is increasingly exacerbated by the absence of a fully functional and effective national integrity institutions, poor administrative capability and weak leadership structures. Somalia has been mired in instability for about three decades: all public institutions and related infrastructure have been destroyed or diminished by the civil conflict. Governance structures have been replaced by lawlessness and pervasive corruption for many years. All grand and petty cases of corruption are prevalent in the country, trickling to all key sectors of the economy. Corruption manifests itself through different forms, such as: mismanagement, large scale misappropriation of public resources, and unethical misallocation of scarce public funds. The pervasive nature of corruption in Somalia is confirmed by the assessments and ratings of several international agencies and by the country’s own documented experiences in recent years. Following are some of the scores and indices attributed to the nation: i. Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index ranked Somalia as the most corrupt country in the world with a score of 10 out of 100 (as is the most transparent and least corrupt) in 2018. ii. The Mo Ibrahim Index for African Governance ranked Somalia last out of 54 African countries with a score of 13.6 out 100 in 2018. iii. The World Bank, CPIA 2018 rated Somalia with a score of 10 out of 100; and its 2018 doing business ranks Somalia as the worst performing country out 190 countries considered. iv. AfDB – CPIA in 2018 rated Somalia with the worst score of zero. v. Freedom House in its report listed Somalia as not free and finds that corruption is rampant with an aggregate score of 5 out of 100 (where 0 is least and 100 most free). vi. Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index ranks Somalia last in the list of 129 countries with a score of 9 out of 100 in 2018. vii. Trace International for Bribery Risk Index ranks Somalia last There are many factors contributing to Somalia being ranked as the most corrupt country in the world. The key factors include insecurity and instability that restricts proper evaluation and limits greatly business and related activities, and undermines state building and democratization processes. In addition, grand corruption that reinforces petty corruption is embedded into the government systems and operations with considerable share of the meagre public financial resources and donors’ funds are wasted and “syphoned of at” dysfunctional integrity institutions. The pervasiveness of generalized corruption has resulted in a culture of impunity, which applies the rule of law selectively, and as a result weakens the credibility and legitimacy of government. 2 Policy Brief: Addressing Corruption Challenges in Somalia Figure 1: Corruption Perception Scores by Institutions in 2018 (0-highly currupt, 100-very clean) The World BanK CPIA 10 Varieties of Democracy 14 International Country RisK Guide 6 Global Insight Business Conditions and RisK Indicators 22 Bertelsman Stiftung Sustainable Governance Indicators 9 (SGI) The African Development BanK (AfDB) 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 In 2005, the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) rating of Transparency International of Somalia was above 10 other countries; Angola, Bangladesh, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Myanmar, Nigeria and Turkmenistan. The perception of corruption in these countries has since then been addressed and improved some, which offers Somalia some lessons to draw on how these countries made progress. 3. Challenges and institutional arrangements The fight against corruption in Somalia during the past decade has made little measured impact, in terms of designing institutional framework, building capacity and staffing the anticorruption institutions. In terms of institutionalization and recruiting personnel to lead the fight against corruption, Somalia has not achieved the set international standards to address anticorruption reforms. The country does not have a sound legal framework for effective anticorruption practices. The current framework is based on a few Executive Orders that lack legislative legitimacy. The Executive Orders do not satisfy the requirements of internationally set standards of institutional independence, autonomy in funding and professional staff to operate anticorruption bodies. Box 1: Example of Executive Orders Executive Order3: Investigate corruptions and related activities at the Mogadishu Port in August 2018. Criminal Investigation Department proceeded to investigate, which ended with the crackdown of corruption cases that led to arrests. Executive Order4: suspension of the deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs on suspicion and investigation on corruption cases. The current government has shown willingness to fight corruption but managed to do little in establishing institutional framework, and effective strategy to fight widespread corruption. The absence of capable integrity institutions has led to a conducive environment for poor regulatory framework that stalled the prospects of economic competitiveness and reforms and contributed to the practice of government officials 3 Somalia: Mogadishu Port Tax Chief And Six Staff Arrested Over Corruption https://allafrica.com/stories/201808200449.html 4 Somalia Seaport Official arrested, Garowe Online 2018: https://www.garoweonline.com/en/news/somalia/somalia-senior-port-officials- arrest-over-graft-claims 3 Policy Brief: Addressing Corruption Challenges in Somalia engaging in illegal activities that perpetuate corruption. The public officials involved in allegations of embezzlement of public funds and bribery have continued such practices without fears of prosecution and punishment. The President speaking at the opening of the third session of the Federal Parliament in March 2018, stated that “It is undeniable that there are serious corruption allegations in the government perpetuated by some of us. It’s obvious that there is a lack of trust.” 5 The Government undertook a series of measures to address corruption issues and to crack down on offenders and the perpetrators to curb the damages corruption is causing to the country as it embarks upon recovery. Regardless of the government efforts to mitigate the corruption menace, little has been achieved as corruption continues to be perpetuated in almost all sectors and segment of the society. The President Acknowledged in his statement that corruption prevails but questioned whether Somalia is really the most corrupt country in the World. The perception of Somalia being rated as the most corrupt country in the world is determined by many factors among them are: • The lacks of institutionalization of the fight against corruption. Somalia does not have an anticorruption law in place. The whole legal framework is based
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