Focus on Federalism: 641 MPs, $6m annual ‘pay’ and a struggle to keep afloat
In our first installment on Focus on Federalism, we seek to understand the number of state legislators in Somalia, their monthly pay and challenges facing state governments in maintaining the new federal units.
State governments spend at least $6 million annually to pay legislators across the five state assemblies and the break-away region of Somaliland against an annual budget of $10.9 million allocation from the Federal Government which excludes Somaliland.
All state assemblies combined and Somaliland which has a bicameral House are made up of 641 lawmakers with Somaliland making up the most-164 followed by South West state with 149 members of state assembly.
Puntland has 99 MPs while the southern coastal state assembly of Jubbaland is made up of 75 legislators and Galmudug in central Somalia has 89. Newly formed HirShabelle state elected 98 legislators to the state assembly after its formation last October.
The Federal Government endorsed a vote of $10,970,000 for state governments absent Somaliland in the 2017 national budget. Puntland got the most-$4,675,000, followed by Jubbaland with $2,695,000, South West-$1,425,000 with Galmudug getting a similar amount. HirShabelle got the least-$750,000.
From the Federal budget vote, it’s clear state governments operate almost entirely recurrent expenditure costs confining development projects and public services provision to miscellaneous items list.
A survey by Goobjoog News however paints a picture of legislators running on intermittent pay vouchers while others claim they have had to send the state president home in the hope they could get a regular pay from a new leader.
Monthly salary
Lawmakers in Puntland are entitled to a monthly salary of $1,500 while those from Jubbaland earn $1,000 similar to Galmudug and HirShabelle legislators. South West state assembly members are supposed to earn $700 per month.
State legislators however say these figures are only in book as they have to go several months without pay forcing many of them to find others means of living while still in office.
“What we get is basically an allowance. This is not a salary. For example for the last seven months, we have only been paid twice,” an MP from South West state assembly who did not want to be named told Goobjoog News.
Omar Mohamed Omar a lawmaker from HirShabelle said they opted to oust the embattled formed leader Abdullahi Ali Osoble in the hope they could get their pay with a new president. “We had not had any salary since we came to office. This is why MPs decided to fire the former president. We hope things will change.”
It is not clear if the self-declared Khatumo state which lies between Puntland and Somaliland gets financial support from the federal government. The Khatumo state assembly has 32 lawmakers.
Added to the bi-cameral Federal Parliament’s 329 lawmakers, 1,002 lawmakers straddle the land in line with the Federal system adopted in 2012.
No capacity
A number of the state legislators Goobjoog News spoke to observed their work was largely confined to the state capitals adding they also have limited understanding on the federal system and their roles.”We do not have a chance to build our capacity to be able to carry out our roles effectively. There are no capacity building and support programmes for legislators in the state assemblies.”
Most of the state governments depend on foreign governments for funding especially to support its salary payments for civil servants and security forces. Puntland government last year printed new currency notes to offset salaries for security forces who had on several occasions mutinied over pay.
Somaliland and Puntland have signed sea port concession agreements with Dubai’s DP World and P&O Ports respectively to manage the ports of Berbera and Bosaso while there have been talks of Jubbaland engaging in talks with the Dubai based companies to manage the port of Kismayu.