Opinions

Open letter to the President elect – Dr Saeed

July 25, 2010   ·   172869 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2Fopen-letter-to-the-president-elect-dr-saeed-17286Open+letter+to+the+President+elect+-+Dr+Saeed2010-07-25+11%3A28%3A49Qalinle+Husseinhttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2F%3Fp%3D17286

Open letter to the President elect
By: Dr. Saeed Sheikh Mohamed,
President,
Somaliland University of Technology

Good governance is our way to buoyancy

Your Excellency,

I would like to begin with my article my heartfelt congratulations to you on your landslide victory of the presidential election.

Your Excellency,

Unlike your predecessor you have high academic qualifications and extensive experience on government affairs and leadership. I am confident that you will find some plausible suggestions
on how to govern.

Introduction:

Your Excellency,

The legacy of the out going President is a complete disaster politically, economically, and socially. Corrupted public administration, poor governance, collapsed justice system, lack of rule of law, lack of discipline, lack of focus and leadership, wide spread unemployment, self-interested cabinet, and clan culture propagation are what President Rayale’s government would be remembered after him.

Your Excellency,

Our people have a very high expectation that you will form a sound government that would work hard to realize our people’s aspiration. You have a very limited time to address a lot of issues pertaining to Somaliland development and sustainability. Therefore, we cannot afford to loose time or neglect our inherent resources. Your Government should work hard to stick with the “efficient allocation of resources” principle that is much needed for our nation building.

We must not be discouraged by the international disdain to the Somaliland status. If we put our house in order and create sound economic pattern, the whole world would come to our knees. Peoples’ Republic of China suffered from political, economic, and military embargo that was imposed by the NATO and the Warsaw camps over three decades. However, when the Chinese people became an economic and military power, the supper powers’ attitude changed. They opened up all channels of cooperation with China. Today Taiwan is not recognized by the international community, but she has trade links with almost all countries. We can do the same with a lot of work and persistence. We can make miracles if we efficiently take advantage of our human and natural resources.

Administration:

Miracles can materialize with sound objectives and efficient public and private sector. People are impacted by the public sector policies and attitudes of the officials. In my opinion, the government officials are not accountable of their activities at the present time. However, no
organization can function effectively without having a system of accountability.

Accountability is a means of ensuring that any person, who is in charge of performing a task, is to be held responsible of the consequences of his actions. Any functional entity can rapidly get
out of control when people are not held accountable of their actions. However, someone cannot be held accountable unless certain conditions are put in place as follows:

a ) Responsibilities must be thoroughly and clearly defined,
b ) The employee must be qualified and capable of fulfilling the obligation,
c ) The employee must have sufficient delegation of authority to accomplish a task.

Above all, an official must be selected on his/her own ethics and professionalism. It is imperative to expand the capacity of the Civil Service Commission by hiring highly qualified personnel on human resources management and development. This would enable the commission to discharge its responsibility at ease and would enhance its performance.

The public administration cannot be effective, unless there are harmonization and consolidation of the existing activities. Administration harmonization can be achieved at two levels:
- Macro-level
- Micro-level

At macro-level, Somaliland public administration is very weak and lacks coordination. There must be structural change in the system, to make the administration effective and efficient at all levels. Each Ministry and each service must be given a clear mission and objectives. To harmonize the system at macro-level, objectives should include:
a ) Elimination of the general isolation that exists among the different government institutions, public enterprises and projects,
b ) Unification of those government departments and institutions as well as public enterprises in order to reduce development of dispersion and to eliminate overlapping activities in order to enhance efficiency. For example, the activities of the Ministries of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, and Minerals and Water are overlapping. This makes the planning and the policy making process very difficult and disintegrated.

Your Excellency,

The government treasury is not in position to cope with the financial needs of the highly inflated number of ministries. In each ministry, there is almost Minister, Minister of State and Assistant Minister in most cases. The present set of our government is not economically and even political justifiable at all at the present time. Most of them are parasites that cannot contribute anything to the political and economical development of the country. New government should formulate and vigorously adopt a plan of austerity.

Your Excellency,

I commend you for having nominated an advisory committee on the government structure. As you publicly declared it is wise to form a small dynamic and coherent team of government and I totally agree their proposal (15 ministries only) although I prefere to regroup ministries as follows:

1: Ministry of Finance and Planning
2: Ministry of Interior
3: Ministry of foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
4: Ministry National Defense
5: Ministry of Natural resources (agriculture, livestock, and Fishing,
of them are internationally classifies as Ministry of Agriculture,
especially in economics).
6: Ministry of Equipment, Housing and Land Management
7: Ministry of Commerce and Industry
8: Ministry of Water and Electricity
9: Ministry of Education and Sports
10: Ministry Public Health
11: Ministry of Culture, Heritage, and National Guidance
12: .Ministry of Justice, endowments and Islamic Affairs
13: Ministry of labour and Training
14: Ministry of Social Development and Gender Equality
15: Ministry of Rural Development and Natural Habitat

As we face budgetary constraints, I would suggest forming a number of autonomous agencies who will get a minimum support from the Government such as follows:
1. Somaliland Fund for Economic and Social Development
2. National Commission of Higher Education and Research.
3. National Commission of Export Promotion,
4. National Commission of Human Rights
5. National Commission of auditing
6. National Commission of General Accounting
7. National Commission of Ports
8. National Commission of Orphanage and Street Kids
9. National Commission of Drought Mitigation,
10. National Commission of Technical Education

At micro-level, streamlining is much needed to address the individual government institutions as well as to the individual public enterprises and development projects as follows:

a) Allocation of additional resources: This could be a tangible support for the entities that are short of resources at district level:
b) Fusion of two or more activities. This step, which aims at creating a more viable entity, concerns mainly small units,
c) Efficient allocation of resources: This would result in covering existing gaps without provision of additional resources.
d) Appropriate training to the whole staff: Most of our civil servants are out of touch and need to be retrained at administrative, managerial and/or technical levels.
e) Board of directors: should be nominated to all public enterprises such Berbera Port Authority, Hargeisa Water Agency, etc. to enhance efficiency and to restrain mismanagement and to bring about accountability.

Regional Administration:

The regional governor and district commissioner do not have a clear job description or sufficient resources. Consequently, they are technically idle. The office of the regional governor should be empowered as follows:

a) The President of the Republic, as his ambassador in the region, must directly appoint the governor.
b) The governor must report directly to the President of the Republic and not to the minister of Interior Affairs.
c) The governor must be responsible the regional administration with sufficient delegation of authority,
d) The governor must be responsible the regional integrated development and the coordinator of all Ministries offices and municipalities at regional level.

The District commissioner should be the representative of the governor, and the coordinator of all ministries and the municipality in the district. The job description of the district commissioner is same as that of the governor but limited at district level.

The number of districts officially registered is very high and political instigated. The parliament passed the district laws, yet the number is not justifiable and would put pressure on the government coffers. Moreover, the district status accorded to many small villages would just increase their isolation and dismay. It seems to me very logic and meaningful that the government sticks with the number of regions and districts that Somaliland inherited from the late Somali Democratic Republic.

We have to get rid of the current district/Regional system of unilateral nomination by a decree. I would rather suggest a system based on the size of Population conventionally accepted and
approved by legislation.

Development:

Development is a multi-dimensional process, which often calls for reorganization and reorientation of both the economic system and the social norms. It generally involves changes in the institutional, social and administrative structures, and attitudes. It also moderates the impact of customs and beliefs. Ultimately it translates collective and individual initiatives and ventures into an increase in income and output. However, development has its own requirements and entails a succession of growth stages. Eventually, a nation reaches the stage where its economy is referred to as industrial or developed one.

Many of the requirements for successful development are obvious: however the major three prerequisites for successful economic development are:

- Good governance
- Education,
- A set of social arrangements.

The first prerequisite is good governance. In the absence of an effective government, economic development is hard to achieve. With weak, corrupted and ineffective leadership, economic development is impossible.

The second prerequisite is education. It is the most important factor of the three, and thus warrants planning and outlook of which its outcome accelerates the economic development process over decades to come. Education can sanction value added techniques to our products, increase our productive capacity and imply economic growth.

The third prerequisite is “set of social arrangements” for successful economic development. The arrangements purport to create incentives for work and productivity improvement. Such initiatives will tackle unemployment, alleviate poverty and induce successful economic development. However, the manpower plan is a key for many social and economic problems.

Manpower Problem:

The Shortage of skilled manpower in Somaliland is considered to be obstacle to development. It is a constraining problem, which must be solved for growth and development to proceed.

To some extent, the solution lies in an increase in human capital investment. The contribution of labour to production increases considerably with education, training and the acquisition of skills, all of which require an investment in human capital.

The solution is to put in place manpower development policies and goals in all our national development programs. The government should be committed to tackle unemployment and underemployment in order to achieve efficient utilization of the labour force.

The strategic manpower plan should focus on enhancing the quantitative and qualitative adequacy and adaptability of the labor force at national level. A manpower development program seeks above all to improve manpower utilization. Its main impact consists in:

- channeling workers to training and technical education;
- directing workers to the jobs where manpower is needed;
- improving manpower performance.

As there is high unemployment in Somaliland, the government should encourage labour intensive projects rather than capital intensive undertakings.

Salary scales:

The next element of a manpower strategy concerns salary scales, incentives, and career prospects in the public administration services. Government salary scales and differentials, as they affect the services, need to be re-appraised regularly in the light of the country’s needs, resources and priorities, and especially in relation to alternative employment opportunities both inside and outside the government.

In many instances, large salary differentials created in the past between various job categories can no longer be justified in terms of educational differences, or in terms of the relative importance of workload responsibilities. Salary differentials more favorable to out-posted staff and to the intermediate or technical levels – especially for fieldwork – could have a major influence in attracting young people into these vital services and encouraging them to stay.

Staff incentives:

There is a widespread tendency for those who have received a reasonably long period of education or training to prefer the facilities that urban centers offer. This has to be counteracted.

It is not simply a matter of salary level, although in most instances a special allowance would be a powerful inducement to live in rural and remote areas. Often, equally important are provision of adequate housing, medical, social, and educational facilities in such out-stations, especially for those with family responsibilities. A good social status in the community can also serve as an incentive.

Corruption:

The majority of the civil servants don’t enjoy income satisfaction or job satisfaction. Therefore, they are depressed and cannot perform their work as required. In most cases many of them go to work for living by generating supplementary income through illegal means. This needs structural change in our public administration philosophy and emoluments.

The revenue collectors and cahiers should be given specialized training and special allowance which is enough to keep them away from corruption financially and administratively. This should be enforced with internal auditors and accountants on daily basis who could operate within a legal framework. Fiscal fraud can be minimized through this system. Above all it is pertinent to get rid of old corrupted staff before they contaminate the clean young ones.

When we confine corruption to its financial aspect, we have to admit that we are myopic and don’t see things as they are. At least one third of the urban bare land or farm land has been expropriated in the name of “Preservation of national interest”.
However, the land was mismanaged by the local governments and nothing was left for public use (such as schools, hospitals, parks, government office, worship places, cemeteries, and land for different industries.

Fraud in its all forms should be penalized. Therefore, the responsibility of the auditor’s commission and the National Accounting Commission should include public and private assists. It’s necessary to establish special courts for administrative fraud. We must not let anyone to escape from justice.
The wide spread corruption culture in Somaliland is much worse than the corruption itself. The Somaliland people do not only accept corruption but they have a high regard to those who build house or make large businesses from public funds and/or properties. Hence there must be public reorientation and raise of awareness through the media, schools and worship places.

Higher Education:

The Somaliland elite who created the national universities have to be commended for their fruitful efforts. These universities and the similar institutions such as colleges have contributed a lot to the human resources development in our country.

However, these universities lack of resources and operate in a very difficult environment. Right now Somaliland government doesn’t have financial resources to support them. However, the government has a corporate responsibility to give them national status instead of keeping them as local educational institutions with regional affinity.

The government has moral obligation to protect national universities from unnecessary completion with foreign ones in our home land. The government should also tackle clan interests in the academic circles and the media.

National universities assume the responsibility of propagating patriotism, national culture and Islamic values. Foreign universities don’t deliver these services. Never-the-less, unqualified foreigners open up universities/colleges or any other educational facilities here without any regulations to observe, without laws to govern, and without making any tangible investment in the form of fixed assets on the ground. Hence, Should this trend continue, Somaliland can be classified as no man’s land.

The foreign universities hypnotize our youth and convinced them that Somaliland national universities awards are not international acceptable. As a result they charge university fees which are exorbitant. One should know political recognition and academic awards are two different things.

Taiwan is an example to the point. Taiwan has diplomatic relationship with few countries. Yet its education system is envy to most countries in the world. Universities are evaluated with the resources they have on the ground and the currency of their programs. Universities that are below the world standard can not be accepted even if they operate in a recognized country. Many universities in Asia don’t enjoy the world of academia respect.

The Foreign universities that operate in Somaliland are invaders. They are profit driven only. What contribution they made so far, other than competing with national institutions in the same disciplines that have been available to our youth since the inception of Somaliland, is non-existent. Had they opened up new programmes that are beyond the reach of our people such as engineering, medical and science at undergraduate and post -graduate levels, they would have been accepted and respected.

In view of the above, universities/colleges should be regulated. The commission of Higher Education should be given enough authority to accredit and follow up all higher education institutions in the country.

Education:

The Somaliland education system is obsolete. Students are not regrouped according to their talents and needs. Each student in the secondary school has to pass more than nine subjects that have nothing to do with the employment market needs. It is wise to divide students into sciences and arts at the end of the second year. Vocational training, even at limited scale, is conducive to our stage of development. Moreover, technical secondary schools have to be at the top of the agenda of the Ministry of education and even.

Someone who passed five subjects with Grade A or B internationally deserves university admission. This is the time to reform our education system to make it viable, dynamic and inline with our priorities and international standards. We must use our experts before we call for help from outside as the case was before.

National Army:
The way our defense system is organized is in line with national interests. Rank and file
of our army personnel are not balances in terms regional distribution and in terms of clan representation. It is very difficult for any one to assume the army can at heart have patriotism and national defense. Yet it takes a lion’s share in our meager budget while Somaliland does not have any enemies to fear. An army without mission can jeopardize peace and stability. We need a very small elite mechanized army to defend Somaliland with high spirit. Therefore, the bulk of our military force should be given a different mission other than the conventional combating one.

The army can contribute to the civil projects such as construction of dams and irrigation systems, forestry, ecology and environmental conservation etc. A large portion of the army can be used above all as ‘Darawiish’ to reinforce the policing and security services in the rural areas and to certain extent as forestry guard.

To improve the image of our state, it is better that official ranks are accorded to the armed forces. An army without ranks is not different from a combating militia. Our armed forces hierarchy and line of command is very awkward. A state that cannot organize its armed forces in an orderly manner does not deserve recognition from the rest of the world. Therefore, it is time to do something about this matter.

Public Finance:

Public finance focuses on the taxation government expenditure and their influence on the allocation of resources and distribution of income. The bulk of the central government revenue comes from the customs duties now mainly Berbera port.

However, Berbera is in competition with the other ports in the region in terms of facilities dues. Berbera port is not efficient, partly because the right facilities are not available, and partly because the handling charges and dues are very high compared to the other ports in the region. If the port is rendered competitive with less dues and better services, the income will be enormous because the tax-base will tremendously increase.

If the customs dues are decreased and value added tax introduced the government revenue would also increase, and our exports become cheaper and competitive in the international market.

Above all, the government should have a sound comprehensive macroeconomic policy on public finance, exchange rate, de-Dollarization of the economy, monetary policy and trade balance – supported by autonomous Central Bank with number of commercial banks. As long as the US dollar remains as unit of measurement in Somaliland, it will be very difficult to manage our economy. We don’t have monitory policy tools to control inflation or to encourage investment.

I doubt the current governor of the Somaliland Central Bank, who is a banker and not economist, understands this fact. I never seen or heard a Governor of Central Bank, in the industrialized countries or developing countries, who is not a renowned economist. I suggest an economist at Ph.D or equivalent should made at the helm of the Somaliland Central Bank.

Free Trade Between Somaliland and Ethiopia:

Somaliland is very small country with limited resources. The market size is inadequate for any industrial development. However, the government must respond to the welfare of the population by adopting a plausible macroeconomic policy that can bring about economic growth through trade. This can materialize by entering a customs union with Ethiopia in order to induce trade maximization between the two countries. Removal of trade barriers would not only increase the flow of goods and services between the two countries but also contribute to enhancing competitive price rationalization in the trading economies, which is beneficial to the consumers and the business communities in both countries.

Customs union between Ethiopia and Somaliland (eventually with, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia, Sudan) is an important factor for the development of Somaliland. Ethiopia being a land-locked country with a population of over 80 million is a potential market for Somaliland goods and services if the latter induces structural change to tap its resources that enjoy comparative advantage. Somaliland cannot afford to neglect this enormous market in our door steps. However, this needs painstaking negotiations to prepare common ground on certain macroeconomic issues in terms of monetary policy and fiscal stability, as well as forward and backward structural integration of key industries. Somaliland comparative advantage can be improved with a foreign capital that can transform the economy into services and semi-industrial activities. However, foreign capital can be attracted through the establishment of free zones in Somaliland.

Free Zone:

Somaliland can successfully breathe a new life into the former ex-Soviet Union military installations in Berbera, the same way as the American naval base in the Philippines, at Subic Bay, was transformed into a free zone. The naval base in Berbera can be used as a pilot project for Somaliland Economic Free Zones. Berbera enjoys with an airport capable of accommodating all kinds of jumbo jets and modern deep water anchorage space. The Economic Free Zone can attract a large number of foreign enterprises. It can be a major industrial, commercial, financial and trans-shipment centre in the region. The target industries would include in the beginning small scale manufacturing plants, assembly lines, and support operations such as packaging and storage.

Legislation should be put in place that is favorable for attracting foreign capital. Incentives should include:

1: Corporate income tax exemption for a number of years (four to eight years)
2: After laps of tax holiday, exemption from national and local taxes
3: Exemption from duties and taxes on imported capital equipments, spare parts and manufacturing materials
4: Tax credit on import substitution
5: Exemption from wharfage dues, export tax and import fees,
6: Additional deduction for training expenses
7: Permanent resident status for foreign investors and immediate families
8: Employment of foreign nationals
9: Simplified import-export procedures
10: Liberalized banking rules and foreign exchange controls.

Somaliland government can put in place its economic activities priorities in the free zone. The stated aims of investment priority are:
• To further enhance the global competitiveness of Somaliland exports
• To increase exports
• To support small and medium-size enterprises
• To increase agriculture horizontal and vertical agriculture produce.
• To set up and upgrade infrastructure and support facilities
• To ensure efficient environmental management
• To monetarize rural subsistence economy
• To alleviate poverty

Somaliland is handicapped with very small utilities sector. This issue can be addressed by introducing the “Build Operate-Transfer (BOT) law”. BOT has played a major role in Asian privatization and development programs.

Priority BOT schemes for Somaliland could include:

• Basic Transportation systems (highways)
• Public utilities (power generation and water supply)
• Environmental protection and/or restoration
• Direct involvement in technological development and modernization
• Export-oriented activities
• Basic industries
• Port and airport infrastructures

The free zone and the BOT projects can only materialize if independent institutions such as Somaliland Free-Zone Authority and Somaliland Board of Investment are created. Both institutions must get the authority and the means to propagate the Somaliland investment opportunities worldwide.

Qat:

Qat is our major enemy. It is drain to our financial resources and it inflicts damage to our human resources. A nation without saving is a nation without future. The Somaliland population is estimated about three million out of which at least a million people chew qat everyday. The average qat session is six hours long; that means six million man-hours are lost every day. Moreover, USD$250,000 a month is spent on qat consumption. Hence, Somaliland looses 180 million man-hours and a quarter of a million dollar monthly.

If we allocate these resources to productive projects, we could make Somaliland a paradise, without any support from the international community. We must therefore take the initiative to discourage the qat consumption by giving the youth better alternatives to pass the time: libraries, social clubs, sports clubs etc. would be an answer. Moreover, Job creation for the idle in labour intensive projects could reduce consumption of qat and open up new opportunities for many other segments of the population.

The President of the Republic is expected to be a role model for his cabinet and the rest of the population the anti-qat campaign. By the way, it is morally right to remove qat retailers from city centers to special places in the suburbs. We have to care the panoramas of our cities and towns.

Postal Service:

Somaliland is economically and socially handicapped because of lack of postal services. Posts play a very important economic and social role in all countries. Many commercial documents can only be transmitted by post in its original form. In fact, a country without postal service is not a viable country. Therefore, the government should do something about this problem with utmost urgency.

Immigration:

As Somaliland does not have diplomatic missions anywhere in the world, visa can be granted to foreigners upon arrival at the Somaliland airports against fixed fees (same as Dubai). This will encourage the foreign investors’ traffic and would enhance the performance of our tourist industry.

Visa issued from Hargeisa, takes a long process that start from the line Ministry to the Immigration Department through Ministry of foreign affairs and Ministry of Interior, four steps. This is waste of time and a good example of how our public administration works. Thus the immigration procedures and the system of the public administration as a whole should be structurally reformed and simplified.

We must look immigration as a positive phenomenon to our economic development. Somaliland is full of economic potentials. We cannot develop our country without having capital transfer from the rest of the world through grants, loans and mainly investors. We must device a strategic plan that can attract foreign capital. I believe that there are a lot of entrepreneurs from the Arab region and Asia who would prefer to settle here as investors. The foreign investors would be instrumental in transferring technology to our country and eventually contribute to the economic development of Somaliland. Red carpet treatment should be given to those people when they are about to come here and thereafter.

Constitutional Reform:

Your Excellency,

You made a pledge during the campaign that you will form a good government. Good governance needs to be based on strong institutions with a system of checks and balances. This is a very a difficult task that needs constitutional reform. I suggest that you nominate a “Committee for Constitutional Reform” at your earliest convenience to address the ambiguities and shortcomings that are inherent in our constitution.

Your Excellency,

I trust that this modest contribution would be of value to your government.

For comments contact:
Email: ssm78@yahoo.com

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By Qalinle Hussein

Tags: Open Letter, president elect, Saeed Sheikh Mohamed, Silaanyo, Somaliland