Somaliland: Two days of Pre-Discussion Review Workshop on Fiscal Decentralization Strategy Progress

The Ministry of Interior (MOI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance (MOF), Office of Accountant General, and IMC with the support of UNCDF/JPLG jointly organized a two days pre-discussion review workshop (4-5 September 2016) focusing on FDS (Fiscal Decentralization Strategy Progress, Local Government Financing framework, services deliveries of the CG Ministries, in anticipation of the proposed Government Budget Conference which is due to be held on 11th October, 2016, commenced today at the Ambassador Hotel in Hargeisa.

The Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), Accountant General (AG), Auditor General (AG), Line Ministries of Services Deliveries Model, MOE, MOH, MOPW and LGs, the participants will review and discuss the achievement progress made in the first quarter priority implementation of the FDS activities outlined in the FDS Action plan that was planned to be accomplished starting from June to August 2016.

Mr. Adan Hassan Mataan, Local Government Finance Specialist, UNCDF, speaking during the opening of the two-day workshop briefed the participants on the objectives of the event, 4-5 September 2016. The event will focus on the FDS progress, Local Government Financing framework, services deliveries of the CG Ministries, made before the Government Budget Conference that will be held on 11 October.

Mr. Adan Hassan Mataan went on further by elaborating the proposed management arrangements for delivering change in which he stated that the process of fiscal decentralization will affect many different parts of the government, and will have relevance for other reforms being pursued, including in public financial management and civil service reforms. For reform to be successful it requires active management.

For this reason, in this period, the government committed to the following actions to improve the coordination of reform:

• Give responsibility for coordinating implementation to the leadership of MoI – which chairs the Technical Working Group
• Hold a meeting (before Ramadhan of 2016) of the different agencies to agree on who and how to implement/take forward the priority actions
• Invite the UN agencies supporting decentralization to attend/facilitate the meeting jointly – including UNDP; UNICEF; and UNCDF (with ODI)
• Empower officials to deliver the commitments in the first quarter priorities , after which the actions/priorities will be discussed in the TWG meetings and agreements taken to the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC)
• Review and update this Quarterly Action Plan regularly (at least on a quarterly basis) in the TWG to ensure it remains relevant to changes in technical, political and other contextual factors that shape the course of decentralization.

Among the notable speakers at the opening of the two days’ workshop were:

1. Abdurrahman Aideed “SOLTECO", the Mayor of Hargeisa.
2. Professor Abdi Ali Jama, representing the Ministry of Education.
3. Mohamed Abdi Bade, Accountant General (AG).
4. Abdifatah Said Ahmed, the Director –General in the Ministry of Interior.
5. Abdishakur Mahmoud Hassan, the Mayor of the Port city of Berbera.
6. Mohamed Amin Omer, the Mayor of Gabiley Town.
7. Hussein Mahmoud Jicir, the former Mayor of Hargeisa.

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