Somaliland Budget: Wasted Away?

[Abu-Salman]

There was always something very striking in countries where despite desperate need for most basic and vital services, a large part of the public budget went into non priority areas and unnecessary bureaucracy if not outright waste, even with the overwhelming majority of the population lacking almost everything deemed as vital or public service.

 

And this was exactely the sentiment prompted yet again after comparing other countries realities with the wider Somali context as described most recently in this update: http://somalilandpress.com/somaliland-budget-2014-is-business-as-usual-48092'>http://somalilandpress.com/somaliland-budget-2014-is-business-as-usual-48092

 

Any reasonable person would concur that Education, Health and other forms of social spending should come first, followed by a heavy emphasis on infrastructure to enable long term recovery (not growth for its own sake, because much growth goes in hand with deteriorating conditions and pollution); yet, this seems to be the exact opposite of what happens very often.

 

Instead of such social spending representing 60 to 80% of overall spending with infrastructures amounting to much of the rest, much goes wasted on ministries on paper, parallel presidential funds, likewise duplicated and bloated security forces etc.

 

Worth mentioning is also the fact that taxation must attain realistic levels to secure the future of the nation towards the 20-30% of total GDP at the very least but more in cases of large diasporas (taxed by the Eritrean government) or when high levels of spending goes to destructive habits such as khat etc (which should be prime heavy taxation targets just like in Djibouti) if not other unproductive uses (land and property speculation fuelled by the absence of any form of recurrent, annual tax or transaction duty etc; even Djibouti taxes luxury villas rent at around 17% or 2 months out of 12).

 

Should it thus takes several generations for less destructive spending patterns of public resources, a more progressive set of priorities (vulnerable groups, healthcare, public health and prevention etc)?

 

Is there any point in growth when cities are not liveable due to pollution and unamanaged traffic(even leaded fuel is yet to be banned as elsewhere), with neither parks nor open spaces let alone pedestrians only zones?

 

 

 

http://somalilandpress.com/somaliland-budget-2014-is-business-as-usual-48092

 

 

[Miyir]

$8million plus for presidential place bureaucracy and another 2million plus for presidential guards ? must be fun place to work!

[Tallaabo]

<cite>

@Miyir

said:</cite>

$8million plus for presidential place bureaucracy and another 2million plus for presidential guards ? must be fun place to work!

What they categorise as "the presidential palace funds" is actually money used by the presidents of Somaliland for various important national secirity and political issues. I would turn a blind eye to that part of the budget

[Fermi]

Where are the funds for this budget coming from? (I.E: World Bank, U.N, individual nations?)

 

Who is funding Somaliland may possibly be influencing how the funds are distributed.