BRA lacks budget plan, can’t account for $16.6m-parliamentary report

Sixteen million dollars allocated to Banaadir Regional Administration cannot be clearly accounted for since there is no documentation to demonstrate how the funds were utilized, the Lower House Budget Committee has said noting the city administration operates without a budget plan.

According to the Ali Abdi Osman led committee, Banadir Regional Administration (BRA) received $15.2 million between January and June 2018 in addition to $1.9 million it already had adding to $16.6 million the city administration had at disposal for the 2018 financial.

But revelations by the parliamentary committee indicates the manner in which these funds were spent and for what purposes cannot be clearly established since there is no documentation to support the expenditure. “Banadir administration received $ 8,575,343.24 within the period mentioned above (January-June 2018) which was expended during the same period but there is no clear evidence on how the money mentioned above was used and this indicates widespread financial mismanagement in Banadir Regional Administration,” the report says.

BRA launched a Public Finance Management programme August 2017 supported by Financial Management Information System (FMIS) ‘to automate financial management and ensure efficiency and transparency.’

However the Committee report says BRA which oversees 17 districts including the capital Mogadishu does not a budget plan. In addition, the report notes individuals and companies ‘regularly earn money from the local government without any written or agreement owned by the local authority of Banadir administration.’

The city administration deducts 30% from its employees to pay ‘consultants’ who have not contractual obligations with the regional government, the report notes adding contracting of projects is not open to competitive bidding ‘encouraging corruption, nepotism, poor management and theft of public goods contravention of state laws’.

Between January and June 2018, the Budget Committee says, close to $6 million was withdrawn from the BRA treasury but it is not clear how the money was used.

The Committee has asked the Auditor General and Accountant General to investigate how the BRA utilized its share from the 2018 national budget and report its findings to Parliament.

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