Somalia

(asked on 17th November 2014) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Somali government on honouring its commitment to manage its weapons stockpiles and prevent leaks to Al Shabaab; what consideration his Department has given to the proposal by the Somali Prime Minister for UK assistance for an investigation into Al Shabaab penetration into the Somali government; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
James Duddridge Portrait
James Duddridge
This question was answered on 24th November 2014

The allegations of corruption contained in the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group report are deeply concerning. We take them seriously and continue to work in partnership with the Somali authorities and other international partners such as the World Bank to improve the overall transparency and accountability of public financial management in Somalia.

Reforming Somalia’s public financial management system has been a priority for the Federal Government since 2012, when they inherited extremely weak systems. Since then they have taken various steps, such as the introduction of an automated financial management information system, and also established a “Financial Governance Committee (FGC)” in early 2014 composed of key members of the Federal Government and international financial institutions (IFIs), which we welcomed. The FGC has enabled the IFIs to provide key reform advice at the request of the Somalis on asset management, public sector procurement processes, and public financial management reforms. We continue to monitor the progress being made around delivering against the advice that has been received and will support further public financial management reforms to create transparent and sustainable public systems.

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