Dr. Abdusalam Omer
Governor of the Central Bank

Forward

What follows is the Central Bank of Somalia’s preliminary response to the allegations of corruption appearing in the Annual Report on Somalia issued by the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea on 12 July 2013 (the “Report). The Central Bank rejects these allegations in the strongest possible terms, particularly as they relate to the financial administration of the current Governor of the Central Bank and the current Somali government as a whole. As shown below, had the Monitoring Group bothered to review the actual evidence concerning the current operations of the Central Bank, it would have learned that every single dollar flowing through the Central Bank is paid to an authorized government official or third party vendor for legitimate governmental purposes. To refute these allegations in the most comprehensive and transparent manner possible, the Central Bank is engaging its own team of attorneys and forensic accountants who have experience scrutinizing complex financial transactions. The results of this review will be published in due course.

In the Report, the Monitors level serious accusations of wrongdoing against the Central Bank of Somalia, its current Governor, Dr. Abdusalam Omer, and the current Federal Government of Somalia as whole. The Monitors claim that the Government has done nothing to change past systems from the TFG-era that had “undermined the State-building enterprise through misappropriation of public goods.” (Report, at 7.) They conclude that “[d]espite the change in leadership in Mogadishu, the misappropriation of public resources continues in line with past practices.” (Report, at 8.) They further contend that “some 80 percent of withdrawals from the Central Bank are made for private purposes and not for the running of Government,” and they call the Central Bank nothing more than a “slush fund “supporting a fraudulent “patronage system.”

Read the full report: Central Bank of Somalia Response to UN Report

Dr. Abdusalam Omer
Governor of the Central Bank