US politicians could help Africa by cutting off billions in funding to the UN and working directly with regions or countries. It's unlikely areas controlled by Islamic sharia law can be helped at all, but the UN isn't the answer.
March 4, 2012, "UN Corruption Index," Ali Osman, hiiraan.com
"Somalia is ranked top among most corrupt nations.
It is not certain what criterion was used to place Somalia among the
list of corrupt countries. However, it is certain that this is the work
of the United Nations agencies for their own convenience so to avoid
accountability. The Somalia Transitional Federal Government (TFG) does
not receive money and is yet to collect taxes. The billions of aid money
for Somalia are handled by the United Nations office for Somalia in
Nairobi Kenya and their sister NGOs. For example, the Somalia’s Defense
and Education Ministries combined monthly running budget is less than
$20,000.
The money that the government collects from the airport and sea
port is very small that some government ministers are paying from their
pocket to cover their travel expenses. We know that the United Nations
for the last five months has failed to pay the salary of the Somali
Defense forces. Ironically, the food, clothes and transportation for the
Somali Defense Forces is paid by the TFG on time from their meager
Airport and Sea port fee collection.
The current Somali TFG led by Prime Minister Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali
and the one before led by Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo have
shown dedication and willingness to appoint ministers not tainted by corruption. They have
shown good governance, transparency and hard work. They have done all
these positive developments without resources and constant danger and
suicide bombings. We must ask then,: Why would the corruption index for
Somalia apply to TFG which does not collect taxes and does not manage
the money for Somalia? The corruption index for Somalia is being totally
misplaced and wrongly labeled against the government of Somalia. If
corruption index is any indication at all, it belongs to United Nations
offices for Somalia. Recently, a head of the United Nations Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO) for Somalia tweeted “UNIDO-SOMALIA
field staff uses Apple IPads for its Enterprise and Community Surveys.”
The average income for Somali is less than $1 a week and you have UN
agency spending iPad costing $800 to collect surveys, you must wonder
the level of UN misappropriation for badly needed funds for security,
education and healthcare.
In the year 2010, the UNDP has claimed to have spent $21,208,236.05
on building good governance in Somalia. That is 21 Million US dollars! I
did not make this number up; it is from the UNDP Somalia Office’s
website. It says: “The expenditure for the Governance programme in 2010
is 21,208,236.05 US$, with the following donors contributing: Denmark:
2,156,335US$; Norway: 356,891 US$; DFID: 248,414 US$; USAID: 1,350,000
US$”
Money spent on good governance is not a bad thing. But, Somalia ranks
the most corrupt nations in the world corruption index. You would
think, someone would ask the UNDP, what has happened to that $21 million
dollars for good governance? There will be no answer. Review and
accountability, has never been United Nations forte. Sadly, the money
will be increased even more and the results will be the same; Somalia
will remain at the bottom of the most corrupt nations.
The billions that the international community
donated to Somalia were given to third-party organizations.
The list of
UN agencies that are beneficiaries of Somali reconstruction and relief
funds is endless. It includes:
UNDP SOMALIA OFFICE (United Nations Development Programe for
Somalia);
World Food Progamme;
World Health Organization (WHO);
United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); United Nations Children
Fund (UNICEF);
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA);
United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization(UNESCO);
United
Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO); UN Habitat for
Better Urban Future; Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO);
United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA);
Inter-Agency Network on
Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE);
International Fund for Agricultural
Development(IFAD);
International Monetary Fund (IMF);
International
Maritime Organization(IMO);
United Nations Capital Development Fund,
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and
International Committee
of the Red Cross.
The list of NGO's in Somalia is long and includes
Oxfam,
CARE,
World
Vision,
Save the Children SOS Children's Village,
Catholic Relief
Services,
Doctors Without Borders,
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC);
Danish Refugee Council (DRC),
Italy's Cooperazione Internazionale
(COOPI),
Swedish African Welfare Alliance (SAWA);
German Agency for
Technical Cooperation (GTZ);
France’s Action Contre la Faim (ACF);
MSF;
COSV (Italy);
Human Rights Watch,
Amnesty International.
UN agencies and their sister NGO’s took
hundreds of millions last year alone on behalf of Somalia. But, who are
these international agencies accountable and who is ensuring the money
reaches Somalia? The answer is disappointing no one. No one is watching
them and the TFG is labeled corrupt thanks to help of the UN and its
NGO siblings. A trickle of that millions goes to the causes it has been
intended to address. And, what you get is Somalia, a nation marred in
chaos, corruption and war.
I am deeply troubled, donor nations and the news media, are putting
the malaise of Somalia, on the shoulders of the TFG instead of putting
squarely on the shoulders of the money man; the United Nations. The
Somali TFG has to beg third party international agencies for urgently
needed funds to create administration and build critical
infrastructures. The funds never arrive, and if it does, it is too
little and too late.
On one level, you have the TFG called “WEAK and CORRUPT”, maligned
and blamed for all the problems while no money is provided to build
institutions that will make the government strong. On the other hand,
you have international agencies handed to billions of dollars for good
governance, security, education, healthcare, road construction, child
nutrition and they are not accountable! The work of the international
agencies and the result for the last 20 years has been and continues to
be alarmingly ineffective. What is more troubling is, donor nations and
large foundations keep on pilling more money on these third-party
agencies which happen to weaken the government and exasperate the
weakness.
It is time to give the label of corruption index of Somalia to its
rightful owner The United Nations agencies for Somalia and hundreds of
NGO’s working on behalf of Somalia. We also encourage the international
community to reconsider their aid for Somalia and directly provide the
funds to the TFG."
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Ed. note: Somalia has many problems. I don't know exactly to whom the money should go but this article makes the point, if it still needed to be made, that the UN is not the solution, has never been, and if anything is just a money laundering operation. And why not? UN personnel are completely unaccountable, can't be prosecuted anywhere for any crime, and are assured that US politicians will continue stealing money from US taxpayers to fund this massive criminal enterprise.
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