NAIROBI — A scathing report written for the UN Security Council says that systematic misappropriation, embezzlement, and outright theft of taxpayer funds have become a system of governance in Somalia.
The nearly 200-page report lists numerous examples of money intended for Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government going missing, saying that for every $10 received, $7 never made it into state coffers.
The report, written by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, says government revenues aren’t even clear: The Ministry of Finance reported revenues of $72 million in fiscal year 2011, while the accountant general reported revenues of $55 million.
A report commissioned by the World Bank published in May similarly found that 68 percent of the transitional government’s revenues in 2009-10 were unaccounted for.
‘‘The Monitoring Group’s own investigations confirmed the involvement of senior TFG officials in the misappropriation of millions of dollars of domestic revenues and foreign aid,’’ it said.
The report further said that the political will to enact reforms ‘‘is lacking in the highest echelons of government.’’
‘‘Nothing gets done in this government without someone asking the question . . . ‘What’s in it for me?’ ’’ the report quoted a senior government official as saying.
Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali condemned the allegations linking his office to corruption.
