Somalia court jails senior health ministry officials for corruption

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Four senior officials from the Ministry of Health were on Monday convicted by a Benadir regional court over loss of millions of dollars meant for the fight against COVID-19 and HIV/AIDs, in yet another dramatic incident that restores confidence among donors in Somalia which largely depends on external funding.

Those jailed include the Director of Health Abdullahi Hashi, Mohamud Bule who was serving as Director of Administration and Finance, head of accounting Mahdi Abshir and head of Malaria and HIV/Aids Bashir Abdi. They have been standing trial since May when the matter was first discovered.

In the historic ruling that shows Somalia's commitment in the fight against corruption, the judge sentenced Hashi to 9 years in jail with a fine of $2,366 while Bulle was slapped with 18 years with a fine equivalent to that of Hashi. The fines will be paid instantly without appeals, the court said.

In addition, the court in Mogadishu has banned officials from serving public office. During the announcement of the verdict, the judge ordered to release five other suspects who were acquitted after founding no guilty.

Further, the Head of accounting Mahdi Bashir was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $2,366 as well while the head of Malaria and HIV was slapped with 3 years and fined $1,183. This was one of the records of prosecution within the history of Somalia.

Evidence produced before the court by the prosecution showed that the officials colluded to swindle millions of dollars meant for the fight against COVID-19 pandemic with very little accountability. The officials were also convicted of trading COVID-19 donations in the black market.

Saleban Mohamed Mohamud, the Attorney General had in May warned against the loss of funds and promised to ensure culprits are jailed. The tough-speaking AG insisted that his team had gathered crucial evidence and promised expedited prosecution.

Further, he had said, over 20 senior health officials had been arrested, their bank accounts were frozen with police seizing incriminating evidence in form of fake receipts, payment slips, and cheques used to satisfy the fraudulent activities.

"The Office of the Attorney General is handling a corruption case which started from the Ministry of Health and later spread to other ministries and top government officials," he said in a rare press conference in May.

"We've detained more than 20 officials including directors within the Health Ministry, heads of government departments and project coordinators, consultants and staff from private firms working with Ministry of Health," Mohamud revealed, adding that important documents for the prosecution have been seized.

In April, authorities in Somalia arrested Abdullahi Hashi, the Director-General of Ministry of Health and Mohamud Mohamed Bule, who had been in charge of finance in the department after failing to account for millions of aid money. They are the first major arrests in the ongoing probe to unearth missing funds.

Several international partners among them the United States, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the UN have been making donations including money to the war-torn nation, whose health infrastructure was ranked among the worst globally.

The funds, officials said, were meant to help improve quarantine facilities within the country due to surging rates of infections. To date, Martini Hospital remains the only quarantine facility within Mogadishu and has since been overwhelmed.

Somalia has recorded slightly over 4,000 COVID-19 positive cases with almost 95 deaths. Officials insist that the figure could be a little bit higher given that the country doesn't have elaborate testing abilities and that dozens could have died unnoticed due to struggling healthcare infrastructure.

GAROWE ONLINE