Mogadishu (UM) – The Speaker of the Somali Federal Parliament Mohamed Mursal Sheekh Abdirahman returned to Somalia from Turkey today. The Speaker returned home a warm welcome from members of a divided House of Representatives. Since he left the country, the Parliamentary Budget and Finance oversight committee were dissolved following their inaccurate report alleging mismanagement of funds and corruption at the Ministry of Finance which was thrown out by the second Deputy Speaker Mahad Abddalla Awad for not following the correct procedures and after the Committee became divided and blamed each in front of the Parliament.
Following the above, the Parliamentary disagreement over the dissolved committee continued and this forced the Speaker to intervene through a Radio interview yesterday while still abroad. The Speaker made clear his intention of resolving the matter through Parliamentary procedure but in the current hostile political environment he needs to act carefully and take the constitutional action that is right. There is too much politicking on this issue and the Speaker must take the action that increases members and the general public’s confidence on their elected representatives.
There is no doubt that the Parliamentary Finance Committee report alleging corruption was weak and politicized. All the three Ministers at the Finance Ministry and the deputy Governor of the Central Bank provided the evidence to protect their institutions from the Committee’s claims of corruption. The fact that the Committee split over the report shows there was a little consensus to begin with and the report was likely politicised. Yet, Speaker Mursal must resolve this issue once and for all.
The question that Speaker Mursal must answer is not related to the Committee’s report because this is already discredited. The question that remains is “can the first deputy speaker, acting as a chair of the House, dissolve the Committee? This is a legal question that must be answered in line with the law. This is only question that matters.
If the procedures and the laws followed by the first Deputy Speaker to dissolve the Committee were correct, Speaker Mursal must quickly appoint a new a group who have a better qualifications, more experience and are capable of doing the task of the Parliamentary Finance Committee effectively and efficiently.