Hargeisa, April 17, 2004 (SL Times) – A parliamentary Sub-Committee called “Committee on People’s Affairs” made a presentation to the general assembly on the 14th of April 2004.

The presentation included the following:

The Director General of the Hargeisa Water Agency to be fired.

The Chairman and Vice-Chairman for the “Agency of Government Employees” to come in front of the House.

The president of the Supreme Court refused twice to answer the state of the prisoners in Somaliland's jails.

The report which was the first of its kind that dealt with the problems of the general public surprised many people. For instance, the report mentions the water crisis in Hargeisa and makes a recommendation. We quote the report:

Water Crisis

“There is no argument about the fact that Hargeisa has grown larger, and the people increased. There is a water shortage but there is no lack of water. The shortage of the water is caused by a bad administration that cannot take care of its workers.
When the Director of the Water Agency took over, it had 8 cars that were on working conditions. He took six cars out of service. He gave the reason for lack of oil and lack of spare parts. The Director himself drives a small Mark II car that is for rent.
It never happened before that water Bureau Employees had the power to give the water to certain parts of town and not give water to other parts of the town (by shutting and opening the water pipes).

The Administrator also cut off an incentive that used to be given to the workers. That is the reason why the workers act the way they act.

The Director, Mr. Boobe, told us [the committee] that the agency use 20 Barrels of oil a day and that he pays $27, 000 dollars every five days. The oil, furthermore is bought inside Hargeisa city limit, while he could have bought the oil from Berbera, which is cheaper.

We found this information from the “Agency fro Hargeisa Electricity”. This raises a question: does the agency depend on “Boobe”, the director, financially? Or does he depend financially on the “Water Agency”?

Recommendation

We didn’t believe the director's version, yet we were not in hurry to reach a conclusion. We sought more information from many sources including the workers and others. Since the water crisis is real and it is difficult to wait any longer, we recommend that the Director of the Water Agency be fired from his job, since he is the biggest problem.”
 

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