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Several Million Tons Of Metal Scrap Sold To A Local Firm, Fate of $ 300,000 received by government officials as down-payment, still unknown
Hargeisa (SL Times) – A secret deal involving the sale of discarded metal scrap, estimated to amount to several million tons, has been recently concluded between the Somaliland government and a local firm called MBC-Line.
The Somaliland government has already received a down-payment of $300,000 on the sale of the scrape material, which is understood to consist mainly of no longer useful military hardware, that was captured by the SNM from the defeated army of former dictator Siyad Barre, more than 12 years ago.
Though the exact monetary figures of the agreement were not yet revealed, the amount of scrap involved is believed to have a world market value of multi million dollars. There was no indication in the government’s financial records that the advance money was actually paid into the public treasury.
By appropriating and selling the metal scrap, President Rayale’s Administration has actually contravened an earlier decision, taken by the first Somaliland government formed after the SNM take-over, that required bequeathing all military and non-military scrap, as well as all properties of the now-defunct “Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party”, to the war veterans association SOOYAAL. The idea was for SOOYAAL to find prospective buyers and use the proceeds for funding its demobilization and reintegration programs. But SOOYAAL’s plans for the utilization of the scrap were thwarted by the outbreak of civil strife in 1992 and again in 1994. By 1996, as peace was about to return to all of Somaliland, the late President Egal sent one of his officials to Dubai to look for potential buyers of the scrap scattered in and around Berbera and Hargeisa. Though an offer by an Asian firm was at one time selected, the late president decided against pursuing the deal in the face of a backlash of anti-government sentiments among the veterans community. Following Egal’s re-election in Feb 1997, relations between SOOYAAL and the government soured to the extent that the authorities blocked efforts by the war veterans organization to benefit from the scrap.
This is not the first time that president Rayale’s government has been involved in selling scrap materials. Last year, a ship which drifted to Lughaya coastal town, east of Zaila, following an engine failure, was later sold with its cargo of steel pipes to two men called Yusuf Ali Nur and Noah Gadhweyne, for reportedly $200,000 only. The ship was towed to Dubai after its cargo had been off-loaded onto another vessel. The two men were believed to have made a profit of, at least, $700,000, out of the operation. Neither the Lughaya deal, nor the current one, were put for public bidding.
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