By Dalmar:
Mogadishu, Somalia –
The Attorney General of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), Suleiman Mohamud Mohamed, has publicly disclosed the identities of 18 Somali government officials believed to be involved in corrupt practices.
The prosecutor requested the court to defer the trial and hearings for all the accused individuals. He cited multiple charges against the officials, including misappropriation of property, document forgery, embezzlement, theft of public funds, abuse of public office, negligence, and dereliction of duty.
Nine of the 18 individuals accused have already been arrested, while the remaining nine are currently at large.
The names of the arrested individuals are as follows:
- Abdullahi Mohamed Ali – the current Director General of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Somalia.
- Mohamed Adde Muqtar Abdirahman – a former Director General of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Somalia.
- Abdullahi Mohamed Osoble – Director of the Foreign Office at the Federal Government’s Immigration and Naturalization Directorate of Somalia (IND).
- Omar Moalim Ali (also known as Umar Katin) – Deputy Director of the Foreign Office at the Federal Government’s Immigration and Naturalization Directorate of Somalia (IND).
- Sabir Hassan Abdi Nur – Head of the Visa Extension Department at the Federal Government’s Immigration and Naturalization Directorate of Somalia (IND).
- Adan Mohamed Abdi – Officer at the Visa Extension Department of the Federal Government’s Immigration and Naturalization Directorate of Somalia (IND).
- Abubakar Mohamed Ali – Director of Land Taxes at the Aden Adde Airport office of the Ministry of Finance of Somalia.
- Abdiqadir Abdi Sodal Abtidoon – a cashier at the Foreign Revenue Department of the Central Bank of Somalia.
- Mohamed Adan Abdullahi – Branch Manager at the Aden Adde Airport office of the Central Bank of Somalia.
The following individuals remain at large:
- Abdirahman Abdi Karim Ibrahim – Head of the Foreigners’ Licensing Division of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Somalia.
- Abdullahi Dahir Wehliye – a cashier at the foreign income section of the Aden Adde Airport office of the Central Bank of Somalia.
- Abdiwahid Muhsin Ibrahim – an employee at the Foreigners’ Licensing Division of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Somalia.
- Muhidin Hassan Sabay – Director of Land Taxes at the Ministry of Finance of Somalia.
- Mohamed Idris Ahmed – Head of the Indirect Taxes Department at the Ministry of Finance of Somalia.
- Mohamed Adan Jimale (also known as Koofi) – a former Director General of the Federal Government’s Immigration and Naturalization Directorate of Somalia (IND).
- Abdulqadir Ilmi Ali – the current Director General of the Federal Government’s Immigration and Naturalization Directorate of Somalia (IND).
- Abdirahman Mohamed Ali Adle – a former Director of the Federal Government’s Immigration and Naturalization Directorate of Somalia (IND).
- Abubakar Hassan Adan – a former Head of the Visa Extension Department of the Federal Government’s Immigration and Naturalization Directorate of Somalia (IND).
Additionally, the prosecutor has stated that investigations into other corruption and public theft cases are currently underway.
UPDATE: Abdulqadir Ilmi Ali, the current Director General of the Federal Government’s Immigration and Naturalization Directorate of Somalia (IND), announced his resignation hours after appearing on the list.
Somalia at the bottom of an anticorruption index
Somalia ranked at the lowest position in the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index conducted by Transparency International, a corruption watchdog based in Berlin. The index assessed 180 countries worldwide.
Despite the pervasive corruption issue in Somalia, public officials persistently disregard the problem. This was exemplified by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s decision to dissolve two crucial anticorruption bodies, the Judicial Service Commission and the Anticorruption Commission, in October last year.
According to marqaati, Somalia’s leading anticorruption organisation, the two commissions were created “without following the correct parliamentary procedure, thereby rendering the [anticorruption] effort useless.”
Fleeing officials
In June, the Somali Digest reported that high-ranking government officials accused of corruption were allegedly escaping from Mogadishu in the wake of impending arrest warrants.
Sources within law enforcement have suggested these officials were tipped off about their impending arrests, and measures were taken to ensure their safe exit from the capital city. The fact that these officials could abscond under such circumstances casts an alarming light on the integrity of the nation’s legal and law enforcement institutions.
