Should Sharif Hassan ‘Speaker of the House’ be charged with corruption?

Mr. Sharif Adan, resumed Somalia Parliament’s leadership seat last week, through a process painted with shame and bribe. Confrontations started in the parliament  after Mr. Adan entered the house: there were fist fights; negative verbal exchanges, and treats against those that voiced in opposition to Mr. Adam’s bid. Reportedly, the voting was conducted in a hand signal call, and many members received cash prices the night before. The result was role calling style voting and Mr. Adam was instantly announced as the winner– 217 yes, and 169 nay. Whilst the speaker was announced to have been re-elected to the speaker seat, there have already been charges bending against him by the very same parliament body whose members fiercely denounced the TFG and pointed its ineffectiveness to bring peace and stability to the war ravaged Somalia.

Two weeks ago,  a motion of no confidence against the government was passed by the parliament which led the  president to dismiss his prime minister Omar Sharmarke, after he learned the vote results from the parliament.  However, Prime Minister Sharmarke refused to vacate office and called the move unconstitutional.  “The Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke has refused to step down insisting the President’s decision to sack his government was “unlawful.” Meanwhile, President Sharif convinced Speaker Sheik Adan Madobe to resign, expected the prime minister to do the same. Shockingly, after Mr. Madobe resigned the president reversed his decision–re-instated the government,  a clear tactic which the president deployed to open the way for Sharif Hassan (the ex-Mira Dealer) to take the parliament. The president has done it so that as his term expires, his close friend in the driver seat can assure him another term for the TFG presidency.
The committee of the Parliament for Finance accused Mr. Adam of dishonest and lack of accountability particularly since the speaker failed to forward balanced budget for his ministry and equally failed to record public finances as mandated by the constitution. The charges against him (the speaker) extend from money channeled into personal accounts; unnecessary travel spending, and that he co-conspired with the current TFG President, Sheikh Sharif Sh. Ahmed. It has been reported to the committee by reliable sources that the speaker deposited 14 million dollars into a personal account in Malaysia. He lavishly spent millions of dollars of public money and donations from the international community in luxurious hotels and mansions in Nairobi, Dubai, Addisababa and other places.
Mr. Sharif Hassan being uneducated, had succeeded to add fuel to the already Somali political turmoil by hitch-hiking it from the hands of power motivated warlords in (2005) to the Blood suckers Al-Shabaab in(2007) when he organized so called SRA led by incumbent Somali TFG president SH. Sharif SH. Ahmed who in his turn nominated him as the minister of finance of the current TFG. Since January 2009, when he was appointed as the minister of finance of the TFG Somalia, he has been evading to abide by the parliament Economic and financial committee’s request to present TFG,s last year expenditure report. He also failed to report to the parliament the national revenue and budget support from the donor countries in the years of 2009-10. Mr Sharif Hassan has not even established his ministry’s public office in Mogadishu, he resides in the presidential palace compound and spends most of his time in travelling from country to another, pretending that he is paying official visit to the foreign countries without any tangible public results. According to a local staff from the Somali Embassy in Kenya, the TFG minister of finance had made 61/flights between January-Dec 2009, with average flight cost US $ 1200/-( 1200×61)=US $ 73,200./ He had spent 288/nights at luxury hotel Rooms of average cost US $ 500/night (288×500)=US $ 144000, Apart from the expenses of the flights and accommodations, there is unimaginable amount of money under name of travel allowances and pocket money for every delegation, which in the case of the Minister of finance is unidentifiable as he has unlimited access to the government fund, but according to the inside information sources, every time he travels takes US $ 15.000-20.000/ making average US $ 35000:2= $ 17500/x61(travel times)=$ 1.067.500/ for 12/months US $ 73.200./+US $ 144000+$ 1.067.500/ =US $ 1284700/ Plus millions of dollars received bilateral relations through the minister of finance are unaccounted for. He is accountable to neither council of the ministries nor the parliament, let alone to the people, he is vested the power of the president the only one to whom he is accountable. Beside the abovementioned facts, there are many other allegations against him, this time with friends of him, one of these allegations is the nationally famous memorandum of understanding (MOU) which he is accused of being the one who was behind the Somali-Kenya Bordering issue with the help of Prof abdirizaq Jurile, the current TFG minister of communications who is also popularly wellknown of brokering the nuclear west dumping is Somalia back in 1992 for reference you can look up the (Inner City Press has reported extensively about this controversial MOU, which despite rejection in Somalia has been defended by the UN, Ould Abdallah and Norway. Another analysis by some Inner City Press sources is below.) By InnerCity press, March 2010.
Somali public believe that some highest officers of the current Somali TFG were paid by the Kenyan government and a Norwegian Oil Company, the suspected officers are the two deputy PM namely Mr. Sharif Hassan and Mr. Ibbi, the minister of communications and the PM himself with the knowledge of the President Sheikh Sharif who even, when the parliament voted down against the signed memorandum, instate of abiding by the legislative decision according to the interim charter, he had officially stated that the issue has nothing to do with the parliament on the other hand unless a corruption is involved, there was no reason to sign the above MOU. The second allegation is about the agreement reached between Somali Minister of Finance and an accountant and auditing firm of Kenyan nationality without the knowledge of the PM and the Council of the TFG ministers, the firm which is well known for its fraudulence, paid commission to the minister of the finance and his friends from the TFG. A third allegation is the Agreement reached between Somali Minister of finance Mr Sharif Hassan and Sudan Government on printing New Somali money Banknote also without any approval from the national competent bodies (legislative, Executive and judiciary). This time, outraged MPs raised motion against him and was summoned to the parliament, but never appeared before the parliament. The fourth allegation is that he bought houses in Malaysia and UAE countries with misappropriated public funds.
The fifth allegation is that they (2 Sharifes) received US $ 600,000. from Eng. Munye, who had been managing director of the Somali fishing fleet for his own benefit since the collapse of the Somali central system in 1991 in return they ( the president and the minister of Finance) gave Mr. Muniye a clean bill in which they declared that Mr Munye had handed the fleet account over to the TFG and so he had cleared himself from previous fishing revenue over the last twenty years and immediate after they cleared Mr Munye, (the president and the two deputies) together conspired in selling out the Somali fishing fleet to an unidentified foreign company in March 2010.
The sixth allegation is the New Electronic Somali Passport’s selling revenue ended up into a personal account for Abdi-Rizak Issaq Idow, who is share holder with Sharif Hassan in Nation Link Company based in Dubai. Throug Mr. Abdulkadir Sheikhy (Somali General Counselor in Dubai) who is in charge and represents the interest of the Minister Sharif Hassan and his friends.
Finally, the abovementioned three TFG Leaders have bought 40% of the Bakaal Money Transfer Company based in Dubai with equivalent amount of US $ 6. Million as well as they bought very expensive palaces in Malaysia and UAE countries with an imaginable amount of the public money, mostly from donor countries and international organizations in the name of Humanitarian aid to the destitute Somali people.
“There are many other allegations against the minister of the finance, he is a one who architected against the MPs not to pay them any salary after they voted down against what was called Kenyan-Somali MOU applying the Arabic saying, make your dog hungry to abide by your order.In conclusion, the current Somali TFG does not recognize legitimacy of the legislative and judiciary bodies and they behave as they were a group of warlords who grip the power by force and perform without accountability and transparency, on the contrary they do understand the extremist group more than MPs, who elected them. They know if peace prevailed and law & order enforced in Somalia, they will be accountable for their previous misdeeds, so they prefer the status quo to restore law and order in Somalia.The current TFG- Somalia leaders are the ones who created the Existing Extremist Groups, they are the ones who were behind the massacre of in 2006 (baidoa city) under the cover of Courts vs. Ethiopian forces. And they are the ones who failed the Arab league Sponsored peace agreement in Khartum Sudan in 2006 between Courts and TFG.
They are the ones who first legalized suicide bombs and introduced black flag in Somalia in 2007. It is therefore, unacceptable that the international community keep entertaining such a selfish and blind junta so called TFG-Somalia on the expenses of the Somali people who have been experiencing miserable life since the collapse of the central government in 1991. Having highlighted the abovementioned allegations against the current TFG leadership, and the former minister of the finance in particular.  Taking into consideration the outstanding parliament motion against the minister of the finance which is due to the first session of the parliament. Considering his unpopularity and mistrust, in the Somali people, following his misappropriation of the public wealth as well as he is not accountable to the law and institutions,  indeed he is vested the power of the President. On behalf of the Somali people, we request all friendly government to reconsider their financial support to the current TFG Somalia specially, when it comes to cashing money only the needed ones deserve to be helped.”
Laasqoray Online Editorial