Somali president denies corruption allegations in UN report

Sabahi Online
Friday, July 20, 2012

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Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has denied the allegations of corruption contained in a United Nations Monitoring Group report on Somalia and Eritrea that was leaked to the press last week.

The report alleged about 70% of money intended for development and reconstruction in Somalia was unaccounted for. It identifies several top officials within the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) as participating in corruption, including the president, Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali and Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aadan.

At a re-election campaign event in Mogadishu, broadcast live Wednesday (July 18th) on Universal TV, Ahmed expressed his disappointment with the report and said his government is "ready for transparency".

"This Monitoring Group report was timed to coincide with the end of transition period in order to discredit the TFG," Ahmed said, according to Garowe Online.

"Every TFG official is in personal debt because they borrow money to keep the government functioning," he added. "Even the soldiers, sometimes the salary is late or the salary does not come, and the soldiers continue to work because they are defending their nation and their dignity."

Ahmed said the UN Monitoring Group takes "the wrong approach for Somalia's peace and development".

The prime minister's office also denied the accusations, calling them "absolutely and demonstrably false".

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