Armies of Liberation

In a cringe-inducing remark, Mr. Gerald M. Feierstein, Ambassador-Designate to the Republic of Yemen, said to the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, July 19, 2010: “Yemen faces many challenges and threats, the chief of which is terrorism, a global threat that requires a global response.” No. The main threat to Yemen is President Saleh. Could the US State Department possibly believe that Yemen’s main threat is terrorism or are they deliberately spinning a load of hogwash? There’s two US advisers that have a clear view, the rest have been in love with Saleh for a long time.

Well they are trapped in the Embassy and only talk to pro-regime Yemenis: Sen. Lugar expressed his concern over the U.S. embassy team’ being unable to travel outside of Sana’a to monitor key projects on the ground. I guess Obama like Bush prefers a dream world to reality, especially when the reality is the US is allied with an al-Qaeda supporting mass-murderer.

This is a little more realistic Jerry: Regarding how U.S. can measure the effectiveness of U.S. financial aid, Feierstein explained that “We are less confident that we can assure the Congress in particular that this money is being well-spent,” Feierstein concluded.

So what happened? The Health Ministry stole the real vaccines for resale in private pharmacies or never bought them in first place? Its very hard to donate anything to Yemen; monetary donations disappear by the sixth journal entry and even well intentioned physical donations (like to the victims of the Hadramout flood) are diverted for resale. Corruption in the Heatlh Ministry has an immediate lethal impact, just ask anyone with diabetes.

Yemen Observer: The Supreme National Association for Combating Corruption (SNACC) council approved Tuesday the withdrawal of an amount of fraudulent vaccine. The vaccines, which were to help prevent children’s illness such as the flu and malaria, were tampered with and then distributed on May 31 in eight governorates. After receiving reports that the vaccines were not in presentable containers, the authority approved their withdrawal from the markets.

The decision came after the SNACC reviewed reports from field teams sent to a number of governorates in response to the shipment of 400,000 doses of vaccines sent to the Ministry of Health stores on May 5, 2010.

The reports assured that the amounts were distributed to the Capital Secretariat, Sana’a, Taiz, Hajjah, Ibb, Dhamar, Amran and al-Mahwait governorates, noting that some of amounts were closer to damage of the powder.

According to the documents, the amounts of the vaccines sent to Yemen are approximately 611 doses costing $1,847,260. Sources say that the Ministry of Health bears 40 percent of the cost of the shipment.

Its not a cost but a write off.

Yemen Times interviews Dr. Mohammad Ali Jubran, financial analyst and professor of economics at the University of Sana’a:

Yemen is not in need of more donors’ conferences as it has its own natural resources, but its resources are in urgent need of good management. Oil, gas, public companies and taxes are the four pillars that the economy stands on.

But oil revenues do not all reach the budget. Up to USD 1 billion per year goes to a group of people in the name of ‘oil cost’ or ‘barrel cost.’

The highest barrel costs in the world are in Yemen, not because it is the most difficult, but because of corruption. In 2000 and 2001 the barrel cost in Yemen was USD 3, but now it is USD 17. In the agreement between the foreign oil companies and Yemen the barrel cost is fixed at USD 3, so where does the other USD 14 go? (Read on …)

Huge losses to the Yemeni treasury, I wonder who got the graft? In 2006 the South Korean delegation came home crowing about the excellent deal with Yemen. After recently threatening to renegotiate the contracts, Yemen now says it will stand by them. This is a very interesting article, one of the contracts has a floor and ceiling price.

Businessweek

une 18 (Bloomberg) — Yemen LNG Co. will honor its liquefied natural gas contracts with buyers including Total SA, GDF Suez SA and Korea Gas Corp., an official said, after the Middle Eastern state proposed to review them. (Read on …)

It was big news in 2006 when al Wasat published the list of scholarship recipients and they were the sons and daughters of the most powerful people in Yemen. Now its just old news.

Mareb Press: استعرض وزير التعليم العالي والبحث العلمي الدكتور صالح علي باصره اليوم في مدينة مرسيليا الفرنسية التطورات التي شهدها التعليم العالي في اليمن في مختلف المجالات. The Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Dr. Saleh Ali Bazareth today in the French city of Marseille developments in higher education in Yemen in various fields. (Read on …)

Lets see who gets the contracts and if anything ever gets built.

TML: Yemen plans to build six beach resorts over the next five years to change the image of the war-torn country and draw tourists. (Read on …)

thats new

Yemenis protest against surging prices, south ‘violations’
All Africa.com

Thousands of Yemenis demonstrated on Thursday following a call by opposition parties to protest against rising goods prices as well as the authorities’ “violations” against southern activists.

Around 10,000 people gathered in a Sanaa stadium to protest against a recent 15 percent rise in custom duties on 71 types of imported goods, which pushed prices up in the impoverished country, an AFP correspondent reported.

“No to hunger, no to intimidation,” chanted demonstrators, referring also to Sanaa’s policy in dealing with southerners. (Read on …)

Yemen Post: Yemen has said that it needs $ 44 billion to implement its fourth five-year economic and social development plan for 2011-2015 and urged donors to release their pledges made during the 2006 donor conference in London. (Read on …)

A government that operates so far above the law that it doesnt pay its own electric bills is going to have difficulty with reforms. Yemen Observer

YEMEN – The Ministry of Electricity, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Justice, has a plan to reduce its debts, collecting more than YR20 billion from individuals and institutions, said Awad al-Socatri, Minister of Electricity and Power at a press conference in Sana’a Sunday evening. (Read on …)

I lost the link! I think its from the Yemen Times, I have to check it.

Governmental offices’ corruption cases are totaling to more that YR1.5 trillion in illegal transfering, equivalent to the current state’s budget, said a first draft report by Yemen Journalists Against Corruption (Yemen JAC), in collaboration with the Journalists Without Chains Organization.

The report registered 126 corruption cases last year. The oil sector, registering 19 cases, was at the top of the list, with more than YR700 billion in corrupt deals. Aden Oil Refinery Company illegally bought oil products worth YR300 billion alone without announcing bids. “This contradicts the Bid Act by which all companies should abide,” said Nabeel Abdurab, one member of Yemen (JAC). (Read on …)

This is it in a nut shell, a snapshot of the entrenched difficulties of building a better dictatorship in Yemen, which seems to be the plan.

Yemen Times This protest came after the administration of Sana’a University suspended a group of professors after they formed an organization called “Academics Against Corruption”.
This organization was intended to reveal financial and administrative corruption at the university caused by the rectorship of the university.
The violations against professors by the rectorship included suspension from teaching, elimination, threatening, and interrogation by the university.
Protestors from teachers’ syndicate, doctors’ syndicate, members of the parliament, human rights activists, and college students raised billboards that said, “Stop violations against professors”.
“ The academics now have joined us in the freedom square against corruption and injustice,” said Sultan Al-Atwani, a member of the parliament.“ The government had considered the academics as supporters of its mistreatment, but the professors have proved this to be an incorrect assumption,” he added. (Read on …)

BBC: Assets (of Dubai World) include DP World, which caused a storm when trying to take over six US ports (and operates Aden Port.)

DPI corporate page here. Kuwait had a better bid than Dubai for Aden Port, but Dubai World got the contract, which was heavily weighed in their favor initially and even after the contract’s revision. But with DWI currently unable to pay its debts, development at Aden Port may stall. There is an the ongoing strike at Aden port for more than a year, prompted by DWI’s unfair labor practices. I have a copy of DWI’s employment contract and it allows for arbitrary dismissals among other discriminatory actions. DWI has called for the dismissal of union leaders. DWI took control of container operations in November 2008.

Yahoo: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A top Dubai finance official said the emirate fully expected fallout from its debt problems and assured foreign creditors that Dubai World’s request to postpone payment on some of its $60 billion in debt was “carefully planned.” (Read on …)

Thank you. The fisheries have been irking me for years. The numbers do not and never did add up. The diesel smuggling is much clearer, but the level of smuggling and under-reporting on the fisheries is astounding. The black market economy in Yemen is the main wheel of industry. If the massive corruption is what underpins political instability, then dismantling criminal networks is a primary requirement and a job beyond the capacity of SNACC as the political and military elite are the beneficiaries of the current system.

Is this a new Fisheries Minister? He’s taking quite a stand. There were also statements a few weeks ago accurately indicating the level of corruption in the Ministry as well as the industry. Random fisheries factoid, Abdelmajid al Zindani was on the corporate board of the Yemeni Fisheries Company, but it never made any money (very high expenses) and investors lost on the stocks.

Yemen Times SANA’A, Nov. 14- More than 40,000 tons of shrimp and squid were exported illegally from Yemeni coasts during 2008 and 2009, said the Minister of Fishery Wealth, Mohammad Shamlan. (Read on …)

The gas, like the oil, is in the south. With the EITI agreement about to fall flat on its face from a lack of transparency about oil sales, prices and volume, one would expect the proceeds from the LNG sales to be stolen at a similar rate. Click here for my 2006 write up of some of the issues associated with the LNG project.

Yemen Times On Oct. 15, Yemen Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) announced the Company started producing from its liquefaction terminal in Balhaf, on the Gulf of Aden.

The Yemen LNG project is the largest and most important investment ever made in Yemen with an investment of around USD 4.5 billion. It consists of supplying gas from Block 18, located in the Marib region in central Yemen, through a 320 kilometre pipeline to the LNG plant located at the port of Balhaf on the Arab Sea, south east of Yemen.

The plant started production with the first train while the construction of the second train is being completed. The total production capacity will reach 6.7 million tons of LNG per year.
Launched in August 2005, the project shareholders are TOTAL (project leader) (39.62 percent), Yemen Gas Company (16.73 percent), Hunt Oil Company (17.22 percent), SK Energy Co., Ltd. (9.55 percent), KOGAS (6 percent), the General Authority for Social Security and Pensions of Yemen (5 percent) and Hyundai Corporation (5.88 percent).

That figure sounds right to me and in line with other studies by sector. Corruption is the underlying cause of instability, and one thing needed to establish a culture of confidence in government is an open and independent audit of the government’s books. Military spending, which consumes a third of public funds, is in the budget as a line item. Beyond corruption is the issue of criminal enterprises facilitated by senior officials who often deploy the tools of the state in generating illegal profits.

Yemen Post Corruption in Yemen is driving the country to a real disaster as about 60 percent of the General Budget is misused, local and international anti-corruption experts have said.

Amid ineffective efforts to tackle this cancer undermining the poorest Arab state, a disaster has become inevitable, a Yemeni economist affirms.

Participating in writing an evaluation about corruption in Yemen in 2006 for the USAID, Abdul Ghani Al-Eryani said diesel trafficking costs the government as much as twice as the country’s budgets for the health and education sectors, more than one billion dollars.

The public funds are misused by corrupt senior officials, fueling, beside economic turmoil, tribal rebellions and the rage of separatists as well as helping Al-Qaeda extremists to tighten their grip in Yemen.

A westerner diplomat, who asked not to be named, suggested that Yemen’s worsening situation is a direct result of corruption, with the Yemeni people thinking about inequality.

For his part, a WB expert said corruption is very serious in Yemen, saying, for example, week salaries are a key reason for bribes by junior officials, while senior officials receive much more than these state employees.

Arun Arya says all trials over corruption scandals seem like well-studied plays, even suspected corrupt officials escaped charges against them through bribes and corruption.

Yemen signed with the UN in 2005 an agreement committing it to fight corruption through establishing an independent anti-corruption authority. And despite the authority was established in 2007, all efforts exerted to tackle corruption remain ineffective and no progress seen on the matter.

A spot on report: Corruption, the government cannot survive without it. The Houthi rebellion, Southern uprising and al Qaeda’s increasing infiltration are all rooted in corruption. The Yemeni regime is structurally reliant on corruption. Its a mafia more than a government.

SANAA, Sept 2 (Reuters) – A Yemeni tank unit fighting rebels is said to have run out of ammunition after its commander stole his men’s wages, telling them to make money selling spent shell casings instead — so they blasted away at anything that moved.

True or not, Yemenis readily believe the tale.

Corruption is rampant in Yemen, whether defined as the abuse of public office for private gain, or in the form of patronage, the diversion of state resources to seek political quiescence.

Its tentacles stretch from top to bottom of the government, with powerful tribes and the military-security establishment among the main beneficiaries, according to a 94-page assessment by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Efforts to fight the scourge, notably the creation of a Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC) in 2007, have made little headway, Yemeni and foreign experts say. (Read on …)

The relationship between Yemen and China is quite strong and well established. Yemen balances its external relations in a similiar manner to its internal affairs. Yemen’s alliance with the US is offset by its relation with China, Russia, Iran, even Cuba. Yemen supports the Chinese position on Taiwan, and China never pressures Yemen on Human Rights issues, of course. First up, we have Yemen quite understanding of the Chinese crackdown on the Uighur’s and insisting its some conspiracy, which is the standard line for the Yemeni government regarding civil unrest in Yemen.

CNN: The July 5 riot in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is an internal affair of China, the Yemeni ambassador to China said on Wednesday. Yemen supports China’s efforts to defend its national sovereignty, to safeguard its social stability, and the people’s security and property, Abdulmalek Mualemi said in a written interview with Xinhua.

The riot in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, left 197 people dead and more than 1,680 injured….

“Considering the grave loss of lives and property caused by the violence, we believe the incident did not happen spontaneously as some people have claimed, instead, it was premeditated and organized,” he said.

AQAP may target Chinese interests in Yemen- report.

Bloomberg: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said it will target the 50,000 Chinese workers in Algeria and Chinese nationals and projects across northwestern Africa, said Stirling Assynt, which has offices in London and Hong Kong….“Some of these individuals have been actively seeking information on China’s interests in the Muslim world which they could use for targeting purposes,” Stirling Assynt said, adding locations included North Africa, Sudan, Pakistan and Yemen. Other militant groups may make similar threats and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula “could well target Chinese projects in Yemen,” according to the report.

More from Yemen Observer and al Sahwa.

Next: Chinese investment in Yemen, the overt kind. China needs to secure energy supplies and is one of Yemen’s main trading partners.

July 14 (Saba) – Yemen and the Chinese Commercial Vessel Building Company reviewed on Tuesday benefits and investment opportunities provided to investors in Aden Free Zone (AFZ).

Vice-chairman of the General Authority for Free Zones, and Head of the AFZ Abdul-Jalil al-Shuaibi re-invited, during his meeting with deputy general director of the company, Chinese investors to invest in Yemen, especially in establishing a factory for Chinese cars in the country.

Finally the Chinese massage parlors in Sana’a targeted by the Virtue and Vice Commission. The Chinese girls trafficked to Yemen as sex slaves were left crying on the street.

Al Arabyia: Yemeni religious police were out in force Tuesday in a major crackdown that saw many massage parlors and Chinese restaurants in the capital Sanaa shut down for allegedly promoting prostitution and vice.

The Yemeni religious police, modeled after Saudi Arabia’s Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, targeted popular tourist areas in Sanaa.

Authorities dragged Chinese women working in several spas and restaurants to the streets and sealed the businesses after posting a sign reading “closed by the authorities,” an eyewitness told Al Arabiya.

The number of Chinese restaurants and spas in the capital has increased significantly in the capital despite the fact that none of them have a legal work permits or Ministry of Health authorization, said an official who supervised the clampdown but spoke on condition of anonymity. (Read on …)

Must adhere to the party line or else… The French maintain the plane was banned; Yemeni authorities insist it never happened. The military aircraft have similar problems with upkeep on their fleet. The maintenance budget(s) are subject to embezzlement, there’s no oversight and the press is barred from reporting on the military. A journalist who did was kidnapped a few years ago.

al Motamar
Aviation Committee is to sue media instruments that offended Yemeni Airways reputation
Thursday, 02-July-2009
Almotamar.net – The Yemeni Higher Committee for follow-up Aviation Incidents has on Thursday on all different media instruments to the necessity of observing the facts about the crashed Yemeni Airbus plane A 310 that crashed offshore Comoros last Tuesday.

The Yemeni Transport Minister called, in a press conference he held at Sana’a International Airport a short while ago, on the media hat published wrong information to correct them , affirming their keeping the right to sue those media instruments that endeavour to target and offend the reputation of the Yemenia Airways Company via publishing wrong information.

The Minister also pointed out that the Committee has established an information centre at Sana’a International Airport for providing in formation and developments on the crashed plane and operations of rescue that would be reported by an official spokesman in the name of the Committee via continuous news conferences.

The Yemeni Transport Minister also confirmed that the crew of the Yemeni plane was of high skill and efficiency and that the Company would remain adhering to safety criteria.

Yemen Post

Yemeni economists considered raising the prices of oil derivatives a political suicide, emphasizing that there are no realistic justifications for such a critical decision by the government.
Dr. Mohammad Jubran, Professor of Economics at Sana’a University, said that the 2009 general budget included an increase in some materials’ prices among which were petroleum products.
Jubran pointed out that, raising prices of oil derivatives in such circumstances might lead the citizens’ living conditions even worse.
He stressed that, any justifications for increasing oil prices would seem to be pointless as oil prices are within safe limits, for the time being.

Moreover, Jubran warned that taking such a step would create many problems and unrest for the country. Confirming that not more than 50%of oil derivatives are consumed locally while the rest 50% is smuggled abroad, Jubran said that Yemeni government is not obliged to support foreigners while Yemenis are deprived of their country’s wealth.

Subsidies exceed USD 4 billion, Yemen Post:

Head of Foreign Affairs Circle at the ruling General People Congress (GPC) Mohammed Al-Qubati revealed the government has no plans to increase the prices of oil derivatives on what it known among locals to be a new Jur’ah (dose).

In an interview aired by Al-Saeeda Satellite Channel, Al-Qubati stated that Yemen spends about $4 billion in supporting oil derivatives, stressing this huge sum does overburden the country’s state budget.

The governmental subsidy on oil is a huge structural problem; the subsidies are supposed to be reduced a little at a time and in conjunction with increased social support so the poor is not unduly burdened. Equally important steps include a reduction in military spending and firm anti-corruption measures. Two billion a year of public funds is diverted into the blackmarket with the subsidies, and thats just one vein of corruption in a vast web.

In honor of President Saleh’s announcement that he will resolve land issues in Aden, I would like to re-publish my 1/1/08 post that reproduces an official list of Yemeni government officials guilty of land theft, according to the Yemeni government.

I invite President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as his first step of national reform, to throw all these people in jail along with his son Ahmed, another big crook:

Posted here Jan. 01, 2008:

A Yemeni Parliamentary committee issued a report in 2006 naming 26 persons who illegally profited from land confiscated in Aden following Yemen’s 1994 civil war. The list includes Members of Parliament and the Shoura Council, military and security force commanders, current and former judges and ministers. The Parliamentary committee recommended that the land owners receive compensation for their losses, however none has been paid.

The following is a translation of the document that includes a description of the individual’s position in brackets for the readers’ benefit:

LIST OF THE NAMES AND AREAS OF INDIVIDUALS WHO RECIEVED CONTRACTS FROM THE GOVERNORATE LEADERSHIP AND PREVIOUS MANAGER OF INTERIOR TRADING CORPORATION (HUSSEIN NASER OMAYER), ACCORDING TO THE (PARLIAMENTARY) FIELD SURVEY.

NAME (CURRENT POSITION) AREA DISPOSITION

1 NASER MANSOOR HADI
(The brother of Yemeni Vice President, Abdo Rabo Mansour Hadi, and Agent of Political Security Forces of Aden,Lahj and Abyan governorates)
received 4.6 ACRES,
sold to ALI SOLAIMAN DAHSH 2 ACRES, and ALAWADHI 3 ACRES

2 HUSIEN NASER OMAYER
(Previous general manager of Interior Trading Company in south)
received 20 ACRES
SOLD TO Gamal Qasem 7 acres, Salem Balfaqeh 2 acres, Abdul baset 1 acre

3 MUHAMMED SALEH AL-MOHAMMADI
received 3.0 ACRES
SOLD TO SADEQ ABDO MOHAMMED 3.0 ACRES

4 MOHAMMED SALEH TUREIQ
(General Manager of Sa’ada Security Forces, former GM of Aden Security.)
received 5.3 ACRES (Read on …)

Its just an absolute zoo in every area. The primary problem in Yemen is the state does not obey its own laws.

Yemen Observer: The Commercial Court in the capital, headed by Judge Nabil Abdul Habib threatened to force the Parliament, represented by its Spokesman Yahya al-Ra’ai, to comply with the court sentence that orders the parliament to pay the amount of YR 340 million in rent and compensation to Mohammed Hassan al-Matari. The court, in a letter to the parliament, called for speedy implementation of the sentenced fine, and payment of rent without failure within the legal time limit of 45 days. (Read on …)

Its very, very good, and they all deserve commendation, but will anyone go to jail?

Inquiry into Cement Plants Frauds
SANA’A, May 31 (Saba) – A widening investigation into an enormous graft involving hundreds of billions of Riyals at the state-owned cement plant is underway, head of the Supreme National Anti-Corruption Commission has said. (Read on …)

I really have to stop reading and blogging and get back to work, but I want to highlight one aspect of the very accurate CGO Sa’ada report which lays out (with supporting documentation) many basic truths that have been obscured for years- including the following on page 25, which correctly notes the four ceasefires failed in part because the regime failed to implement its own part of the deal- because the military failed to follow orders.

The military, ministries, security forces etc. function as fiefdoms and are beyond control of the central government, which is also why the reforms never get implemented and development projects fail time after time. Because of corruption and the complete lack of accountability, different parts of the government go in different directions and compete with each other and, in sum, produce an overall irrational outcome. Saleh could never make peace, he didn’t have the capacity (assuming he was sincere) because the military had an agenda of its own.

Arguably the most serious impediment was that both
mediation efforts and steps announced by the government
to calm the situation were either undermined by
accompanying repressive measures or, more simply,
not implemented at all.149 This partly resulted from
competing approaches between the political leadership
and army command. According to a Zaydi scholar who
participated in unofficial mediation efforts, “when the
president called for mediation, the army did not always
cooperate. Mediation efforts would have succeeded
had there been a consensus between the politicians and
the army. Instead, they were sabotaged by disagreement”.
150 This claim was supported by different participants
and independent observers. Another mediator
offered an example of government branches working
at cross-purposes:

So now extrapolate that lack of central control of the military and the security forces to the issues of terrorism and organized crime, and what do you get – a mafia with an airforce and military commanders training terrorists in military camps. This too one day will be documented.

Update: Yemen Post: Man wounded as police destroy his home with bulldozers.

Update 2: ISPN:

“Qat is a major source of tax revenue and the centre of all corruption in Yemen. Over 50 percent of tax revenue is derived from qat, but this is only about a third of the real revenue it generates. Everyone from farmers to the highest officials is involved in the qat trade and taking money under the table.”

While the government makes broad statements about its intention to reduce the consumption and cultivation of the narcotic plant, any genuine effort is thwarted from within, he adds. “Much of the crop is actually grown on government land, so officials involved will block any attempt to reduce its market.”

Its the same configuration over and over in every area including the political realm, corporate, security, basic services, development and terrorism. There is no single government, only multiple actors deploying state power and resources for a variety of ends.

(As a side note, Im so happy the report documents that, NO, the Houthi prisoners were never released- since 2005- despite at least 25 government announcments to the contrary. The regime arrested its own fact finding committee, and so on. Its a good report. You can’t imagine the incredible flack I got in 2005 for writing that 68,000 Sa’ada residents were displaced by the war; by 2008 the number was 130,000. Hopefully there will be some changes now as the truth is better documented by both CGO and Human Rights Watch. My photo essay of destruction in Sa’ada is at Bill’s. You can see, there really needs to be some changes.)

The Bin Shamlan quote is telling. Yemen Times:

SANA’A May 24 — A number of recommendations considered a basis for national dialogue on the country’s urgent issues were outlined during the National Consultation Meeting, which concluded its activities on Thursday. (Read on …)

This is really old, but I need it. al Motamar July 2007

NewsYemen – While the HitsUNiTEL company is preparing to launch the GSM service as the third operator in Yemen, under the sponsorship of Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology, the Yemeni UNiTEL company says such behavior is a belittlement of laws and judicial orders. (Read on …)

The three convicted of spying for Israel Iran! have a whole other back story that has nothing to do with spying but rather a variety of commercial ventures that were in competition with regime associated individuals. Its complicated, but as usual, nothing is as it seems and the judiciary is a political tool.

Marebnews.com

Bassam al-Haydari, who was convicted of collaborating in the interests of Israel a few months before, told from within prison in Sanaa, the details for the first time disclosed a means for information, noting that Ihab Tawfiq was the reason behind the president and his involvement in the issues of terrorism and intelligence with Israel, and defended himself by saying: “God is enough, yes agent “, in reference to what was raised about the mere allegations are false. (Read on …)

Thats good stuff indeed, and yes the ruling family has billions in the UAE. More on Yahya Saleh and MAZ below the fold, but there’s so many criss- cross relations between the Yemeni adminstration and corporate misconduct that its mind boggling.

Yemen Post

With the passage of time, the democratic project has turned to be a family one and “Al-Saleh” name has started to label all government, charity and officials activities, with wide media coverage financed by state funds as well as money obtained from businessmen. This clearly indicates that the state is following the Gulf family model.

Even the ruling party, the General People Congress (GPC), has turned to be a tool in the hand of the ruling family leaderships who control its policies, decisions and financial affairs.

Political Control through Economy
General Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh has started to show up in mass media as paying visits to some Gulf countries to meet with these states’ kings, Sheikhs and crown-princes. The last visit was made to Bahrain on April 25 and Ahmed had meetings with the crown prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

The recent issue of Al-Maz Company, which works as a subcontractor for Total Yemen, Total drivers revealed the way in which the sons of the ruling family obtain agency contracts from the largest oil companies. The company receives $1200 for each driver; but it just pays each one of them $225. Thus the company’s profits from the salaries of 100 drivers reach $97,000 a month.

Commissions of Protection and Partnership
Informed sources revealed that two sons from the ruling family received $40 million in commission for buying modern weapons from Dubai during the recent Russian Weapons Exhibition.

A military and economic affairs observer noted that a military leader from the ruling family got over $20 million in commissions for military deals over the years 1996 – 2005.

A Yemeni expatriate in United Arab Emirates quoted a senior Emirate official as saying that Yemeni officials from the ruling family invested over $15 billion in his country.

Land Plots and Farms
Feeling their importance, the ruling family sight has been directed towards lands and farms being one of the easiest ways, towards speedy enrichment. It is known that an influential from the ruling family owns over 150,000 Lebnah (Lebnah = 56 square meters).

Sheikh Tareq Al-Fadhli distributed plots of lands to senior officials; the areas of some plots come close to the area of a small country. They also have larger farms in Abs, Hajjah, Al-Hodeidah and Hadramout.

Army: External Gate
An observer reviewing the map of army and security will easily find that the leaders of these institutions belong to the ruling family or the areas neighboring the family’s homeland. They are assuming the leading posts in the Republican Guard, Special Guards Forces, Central Security, Air Forces, Military Areas and Brigades.

Informed sources also speak about thousands of soldiers enlisted in the payrolls but they never exist and their salaries, in millions, go to the leaders of military units in which such names are enlisted.

(Read on …)

وثائق اتهام نجل الرئيس
الحلقة الثانية: ( فضيحة التبرئة)

منير الماوري
almaweri@hotmail.com
ارتكبت وكالة الأنباء اليمنية سبأ التي يرأسها صحفي قدير هو نقيب الصحفيين السابق نصر طه مصطفى، خطأ مهنيا فاحشا، أستطيع أن أجزم أن رئيس الوكالة لا ناقة له في الخطأ الفضيحة ولا جمل، لأن الخبر الفضيحة صادر من دوائر التظليل والخداع باسم الوكالة دون أدنى حياء أو خجل من افتضاح الكذب الذي أصبح سياسة رسمية. ففي محاولتها لتبرئة نجل الرئيس من فضيحة الرشوة التي تطرقت إليها وثائق محكمة أميركية في فلوريدا، واعترفت بتقديمها لمسؤولين يمنيين شركة لاتين نود الأميركية، كذبت تلك الدوائر على الجمهور اليمني بأن وزارة العدل الأميركية أصدرت بيانا جديدا ” يؤكد نزاهة تصريحات حكومة بلادنا في نفيها أن يكون لأي من أولاد فخامة رئيس الجمهورية أي علاقة بالشركة الأمريكية المذكورة، وأن الإشارة إلى اسم نجل الرئيس ليس سوى خطأ غير مقصود تم تصحيحه من الجانب الأمريكي.”
والواقع أن وزارة العدل الأميركية لم تنزه أحد، ولم تصدر بيانا جديدا بل أعادت تحديث بيانها الأول نفسه مؤكدة في نفس البيان أن “الوزارة لا تنوي محاكمة أحد من المسؤولين الأجانب”، وأعادت التأكيد بأن الشركة الأميركية دفعت الغرامة واعترفت بذنبها وانتهت القصة. ويمكن قراءة البيان مع الإضافات المدخلة عليه في الرابط التالي:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/PRNewswire/release/145177.html

وفي واقع الأمر فإن الصحف اليمنية وعلى رأسها صحيفة المصدر عندما نشرت خبر الفضيحة الأولى لم تعتمد على بيان وزارة العدل الأميركية بل اعتمدت على وثائق المحكمة مباشرة، والتزمت الصحف الأمانة في نقل الحقائق، بالقول إن الوثائق لا توجه اتهاما صريحا لنجل الرئيس، وإنما توجه الاتهام للشركة التي اعترفت بدفع رشوة لأشخاص ووسطاء يزعمون أن لهم صلة بنجل الرئيس، وتقول الوثائق إن كلام الوسطاء قد يكون صحيحا لأنهم استطاعوا بالفعل أن يحصلوا على تسهيلات للشركة داخل اليمن بأسعار تفضيلية.
نؤكد مرة أخرى أن الوثائق لم تتغير وأن القضية صحيحة، وليس هناك في اليمن من يحتاج إلى أدلة من وزارة العدل الأميركية على وجود فساد في اليمن، لأن روائح الفساد قد وصلت كل مكان في مؤسسات البد، ومن يريد التأكد فما عليه إلا المرور من قرب منازل المسؤولين في حدة وفج عطان وسيجد فيها، أكبر دليل على فساد هؤلاء المسؤولين وسرقاتهم. كما أن الرئيس نفسه اعترف في خطاب رسمي بأنه لن يستمر مظلة للفاسدين، وهذا اعتراف مسجل بالصوت والصورة على وجود الفساد، والرئيس أكثر من يعرف بوجود الفساد لأنه يقرأ تقارير الجهاز المركزي للرقابة والمحاسبة، وهو الجهاز الذي لم يحاسب أحدا ولم يقدم كبشا ولا وزيرا للمحاكمة وإنما تحولت تقاريره إلى وسيلة للابتزاز السياسي وإسكات المشاغبين.
أما ما يتعلق بنجل الرئيس فإن وزارة العدل الأميركية لن تحاكمه، ولا نريدها أن تحاكمه، بل نريد الشعب اليمني والرأي العام اليمني أن يحاكم الرئيس ونجل الرئيس وسكرتير الرئيس، ومزوري توقيع الرئيس، ومدير مكتب الرئيس، وكل من له علاقة بالرئيس، ما دام أن الرئيس لا يريد أن يحاكم الفاسدين، مستعيضا عن ذلك بمحاكمة الصحفيين والناشطين الحقوقيين، ومحاربي الفساد.
النصيحة التي قدمتها لنجل الرئيس في مقالي السابق مازالت قائمة، ولها ما يبررها لأن نجل الرئيس يرأس لجنة غير دستورية تشرف على كل استثمارات البلد، ومن أبرز أعضاء هذه اللجنة الأخوة التالية أسماؤهم:
أحمد علي عبدالله صالح
طارق محمد عبدالله صالح
يحي محمد عبدالله صالح
يحي عبدالله صالح دويد
خالد الأكوع
فارس السنباني
صلاح العطار
حافظ معياد
جلال يعقوب
با لإضافة إلى وزير الاتصالات الجبري
ومن الملاحظ أن الخمسة الأوائل هم من أقارب رئيس الجمهورية، ولا نعرف لأي جهة دستورية تتبع هذه اللجنة، وهل يعرفها مجلس النواب أم لا، ولكن يبدو أننا دخلنا مرحلة الاستثمار الأسري. والأدهى من ذلك أن بعض أعضاء اللجنة ورئيسها، يتولون مناصب عسكرية رفيعة لا تتناسب مع الإشراف على استثمارات البلد المدنية. وكان الرئيس قد كشف في إحدى مقابلاته التلفزيونية أنه عين أقاربه في مناصب عسكرية رفيعة، لكي يمنع حدوث انقلاب عسكري قد يخطط له ضباط من خارج الأسرة. ولكن السؤال المطروح الآن ما هي مبررا ت الرئيس في تعيين أقاربه في أعلى لجنة لحماية الاستثمار داخل البلاد؟! هل يريد أن يحمي البنك المركزي من القوات الجوية أو من الفرقة الأولى مدرع؟! أم أنه يعتبر اليمن كل اليمن ملكا له يفعل بها ما يشاء؟!
لاحظوا معي هنا أن قائد الحرس الجمهوري هو رئيس اللجنة، وأن وزير الاتصالات هو عضو في اللجنة. وبما أن الشركة الأميركية صاحبة الفضيحة ارتبطت بالاتصالات، فإن من حق كل يمني أن يطالب بتحقيق محايد، ومحاكمة للمتورطين إذا أراد نجل الرئيس أن يبرئ نفسه؟ بدلا من الإفتراء على وزارة العدل الأميركية. وأتحدى وكالة سبأ للأنباء أن تنشر الترجمة الكاملة للبيان الجديد الذي تقول إن وزارة العدل الأميركية أصدرته، فليس هناك أي بيان سوى البيان الأول مع الإضافات المطمئنة التي أدخلت عليه.
ونحن بصراحة نريد تحقيقا محايدا، لأننا بصراحة فقدنا الثقة ليس في نجل الرئيس فقط بل في الرئيس نفسه وفي النظام برمته. وما لم تكن هناك شفافية في سير التحقيق فإن التهمة ستظل قائمة إلى أن يموت الشعب أو يموت النظام. و الأمر الذي نوه له الرئيس في خطابه هو تذكير أن ثورة سبتمبر قامت ضد الحكم الأسري والقروي. وأظن أن 90% من القراء يتفقون معي أن تعيين أفراد الأسرة واصحاب القرية في مناصب رفيعة تحتكر التعامل مع المستثمرين سوف يعيدنا إلى القروية والأسرية، ويعيدنا إلى “المربع الأول”. ورحم الله الشهيد علي عبدالمغني الذي ضحى بحياته وهو في عز الشباب من أجل التخلص من الحكم العائلي والتخلص من الاقتصاد العائلي الذي أفقر الشعب اليمني، وعاد إلينا الفقر والظلم في ثوب جديد.

Yemen is unable to absorb donor aid in a constructive and transparent manner. A large percentage of aid, grants and loans- beyond the 5.5 bil- have also not been utilized or were diverted. Yemen Post

SANA’A // More than two years after a donors conference in London pledged US$5.5 billion (Dh20bn) to help Yemen, just over $375 million has been disbursed. The challenge now, according to a top World Bank official, is obviously translating those pledges into action.

“We made significant pledges of financial and other assistance in London, but the challenge is now one of implementation, of ensuring that these pledges translate into actual action on the ground, and that the activities we finance are true priorities for the country,” said Daniela Gressani, the World Bank’s regional vice president for Middle East and North Africa. Almost half of the pledges – $2.5bn – came from Gulf states.

Nabil Shaiban, Yemen’s general director of international co-operation at the ministry of planning and international co-operation, said the delay in using the funds was because of the time needed to meet donors’ requirements for allocating the money. (Read on …)

A funky little story about the Marib gas power station project, but not so odd following the scandal surrounding nuclear project and the later Latin Node. No mention of exactly where the 60 mill is at the moment.

Sahwa Net – An Iranian company ( the Persian ) have reimbursed the Yemeni Electricity and Energy Ministry $ 60 million for violating the agreement terms signed with Yemen’s ministry , according to well-informed sources. The sources said that the Iranian firm bought transformers with bad quality, violating the agreement of Marib Gas Power Station Project.

More at the Yemen Post: apparently it was well known that the Iranian firm substituted an Indian generator instead of the agreed upon Sieman’s. (Read on …)

The SNACC is going to bring it to the President’s attention. There is no information if there are irregularities in the forms submitted. Also Parliament is asking for prosecution of officials who stole YR72 billion in 2007 through corruption

Yemen Observer: The Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC) is taking legal procedures to refer 3 ministers, 8 governors, and 40 ambassadors to the judiciary, pursuant to article 24 of the second chapter of Anti-Corruption Law, according to SNACC member Ahmed Qurhesh. (Read on …)

That’s really a shame, predictable though. OpenDocument

Yemen: Fears of flood-affected farmers abandoning agriculture
Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Date: 12 Apr 2009

SEYOUN, 12 April 2009 (IRIN) – An official has warned that delays in restoring the severely flood-affected agriculture sector in Hadhramaut Governorate, southeastern Yemen, will prompt farmers to abandon their jobs and seek work in other sectors, affecting food security in the impoverished country. (Read on …)

Further damage control on the son of the Yemeni president being a thief according to US federal courts: here here and here

al Motamar

US State Department reports are political targeting: Human Rights Minister
Tuesday, 14-April-2009
Almotamar.net – Yemen Human Rights Minister Dr Huda al-Ban has on Tuesday revealed a government tendency for engaging civil society organisations working in human rights field in the reply to international reports issued by the US State Department, Amnesty International, Freedom House and others, so that the reply would be a national one instead of official. She has accused report by the US State Department of inaccuracy, reshuffling cards and fabrication of non-existing realities. She added that 95% of the issues and incidents the report has tackled had been literally mentioned in previous years. (Read on …)

None of the fisheries numbers line up and they haven’t for years (the exports reported by businessess and the official reports-and the prices reported). Its among the most corrupt for sure, which is saying a lot. The question is where is the leakage going and is the connection to Zindani severed informally as well as officially? Thers’s all the deals with the foreign companies, the diversion of donor aid and the destruction of the marine ecosystem as additional concerns.

Yemen Post

The country has seen a fall in fish production over the last few years. Despite the conflicting statistics of the Ministry of Fish Wealth about Yemen’s exports of fish products, the contribution of this sector is still limited and does not exceed 1.7 percent of the total exports.
According to the ministry, fish production of 2008 dropped to 127,000 tons, from 256,000 tons in 2004 and 230,000 tons during in 2005 and 2006. It fell to 180,000 tons in 2007. (Read on …)

Update: Now thats funny right there. The Telecommunication Ministry says that what the article actually means is that the fine (which is payable to the US government) is what was paid to the ministry’s officials in exchange for the favorable rates. Nothing to see, just move along…

Yemen Post: Informed sources from the Ministry of Telecommunications told news web site that such report by media outlets is groundless. “Latinode agreed to pay a $2 million fine during a three-year period to officials in Yemen in exchange for favorable interconnection rates,” the source said, calling on all media outlets to be accurate and objective when reporting news.

Al-Tagheer says a government official said in a phone interview that the information was “incorrect” and “false” and designed to harm the reputation of Yemen, and some symbols in the forefront of the son of the president.

Mareb Press: مصدر مسئول في الاتصالات ينفي تورط شخصيات رفيعة في عملية رشوة لشركة أمريكية An official source in communication denies involvement in the process of eminent persons to bribe a U.S. company
الخميس 09 إبريل-نيسان 2009 الساعة 02 صباحاً / مأرب برس – خاص Thursday, April 09 – April 2009 at 02 am / Marib Press – private

نفي مصدر مسئول في وزارة الاتصالات اليمنية ما ذكره موقع التغيير نت Denied official source at the Yemeni Ministry of Communications with the site change Net من تورط مسئول كبير في الوزارة ونجل الرئيس علي عبد الله صالح في عملية رشوة قيل انها قدمت من قبل شركة ” لاتين نود ” الأميركية والمتخصصة The involvement of a senior official in the Ministry and the son of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the process it was a bribe offered by the company, “We wish to Latin American” and specialized في خدمات الاتصالات. Communications services.

وقال المصدر المسئول لـ” مأرب برس ” ان ما ورد عبارة عن تلفيقات من قبل جهات لها دوافعها الخاص ولا اساس له من الصحة، مؤكد ان الوزارة ستكلف عدد من القانونيين للرد على تلك الاتهامات الزائفة ومقاضاة من ويقف وراء تلك الإخبار الكيدية. The official source of the “Marib Press that” as a fabrication by the private actors motivated and unfounded, confirmed that the ministry will be a number of lawyers to respond to the accusations false and the prosecution of the stands behind the news that malicious.

Miami Internet phone firm pleads guilty to paying bribes
BY PATRICK DANNER
pdanner@MiamiHerald.com
A Miami-based Internet phone company has agreed to pay a $2 million fine after pleading guilty to paying bribes to officials in Honduras and Yemen in exchange for favorable interconnection rates.

Latin Node paid more than $2.2 million in bribes that company e-mails indicate were intended for, among others, the son of the Yemeni president and officials of the Yemeni Ministry of Telecommunications, court documents show. (Read on …)

They don’t name the son but it could be Ahmed Saleh, the son of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the heir apparent to Saleh’s throne. He is also the commander of the Special Forces and the Republican Guard which directs the mechanized units including artillary, the new tanks and rockets. Payments also went to the ministry of telecommunication and other Yemeni officials.

US Department of Justice

Latin Node Inc., Pleads Guilty to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Violation and Agrees to Pay $2 Million Criminal Fine

WASHINGTON – Latin Node Inc. (Latinode), a privately held Florida corporation, pleaded guilty today to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with improper payments in Honduras and Yemen, Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division announced.

At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Paul Courtney Huck in the Southern District of Florida, Latinode pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging a criminal violation of the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions. As part of the plea agreement, Latinode agreed to pay a $2 million fine during a three-year period.

According to court documents, Latinode provided wholesale telecommunications services using Internet protocol technology countries throughout the world, including Honduras and Yemen…

In addition, from approximately July 2005 to April 2006, court documents show that Latinode made 17 payments totaling approximately $1,150,654 either directly to Yemeni officials or to a third-party consultant with the knowledge that some or all of the money would be passed on to Yemeni officials in exchange for favorable interconnection rates in Yemen. Each of those payments was made from Latinode’s Miami bank account. According to court documents, company e-mails indicate that the intended payment recipients included, but were not limited to, the son of the Yemeni president; the vice president of operations at TeleYemen, the Yemeni government-owned telecommunications company; other officials of TeleYemen; and officials from the Yemeni Ministry of Telecommunications.

The contest is open to non-governmental organizations. The Global Integrity report on Yemen is here and finds a “huge” gap between the law and its implementation. The contest requires the idea to be connected to or derived from the Global Intergrity analysis/diagnostic tools. There’s the potential for the winners to get their ideas funded as well with a $20K grant.

The Global Integrity Impact Challenge is seeking proposals for projects that use Global Integrity’s diagnostic tools to fight corruption. The best proposals get a US$1,000 prize and a chance to pitch the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) for funding to implement their ideas.

This year, Global Integrity released our 3rd annual assessment of anti-corruption and good governance trends around the world. The Global Integrity Report: 2008highlights the strengths and weaknesses of government accountability mechanisms in specific country contexts, creating a checklist for incremental reforms. Now that the data has been gathered, where do we start addressing these governance gaps? This a question that Global Integrity believes has to answered locally.

To answer this question, the Global Integrity Challenge will offer cash prizes to groups that use the Report’s Integrity Indicators to develop projects that fight corruption. We’re looking to promote direct linkages between the problem of corruption, Global Integrity’s diagnostic tools, [your proposed project here] and measurable change on the ground. For more information on the types of proposals we’re accepting and the application process, please see http://tinyurl.com/impactlink
The application deadline is April 5th, 2009.

A jury will review the proposals and select six to ten finalists. An online public vote will select three winners. Each winner will receive a US $1,000 prize as well as an introduction to the Partnership for Transparency Fund, an organization that provides grants to groups working on corruption issues.
You can learn more about the Impact Challenge at http://tinyurl.com/impactlink.

Mukallah Press reports Yemen is making hundreds of millions in contacts for illegal dumping of radioactive waste. There’s a lot of environmental damage to the country side but this is deliberate, the paper claims. I wouldn’t put it past them, but its an unsubstantiated claim and the first I’ve heard of it. Radioactive is harder to believe than toxic waste somehow. Still its good to keep an eye on radioactive substances in Yemen in particular.

Caused the spread of cancer .. شركات اجنبية بتواطئ نافذين تدفن نفايات اشعاعية على طول خط قرية المعيان بالشحر الى تريم – ساه بحضرموت The complicity of foreign companies burying radioactive waste in force along the line of the village to Taryam Almaian Baahr – Sah Bhoudermott الشحر – المكلا برس – خاص التاريخ: 7/3/2009 Ash – Makla Press – a special date: 7/3/2009
كشفت مصادر مطلعة للمكلا برس عن وجود نفايات أشعاعية دفنت خلال الفترة الماضية القريبة على طول الخط الممتد من قرية المعيان بمديرية الشحر حتى تريم – ساه بحضرموت الداخل جلبت من الخارج وبتواطئ مسؤولين من ابناء المحافظة . Knowledgeable sources told the Press of Mekele on the presence of radioactive waste buried in the past period, close along the line extending from the village of Ash, even Almaian Department TRIM – Sah Bhoudermott brought home from abroad and the complicity of officials of the sons of the province. (Read on …)

Yes well I guess after a decade you can presume they are just not going to get completed. Even free land grants wasn’t enough motivation.

Yemen Observer

The government’s investment authority announced Tuesday that it has cancelled 189 projects financed by Yemeni and Gulf investors, including projects that have not yet been implemented after ten years of planning.

The Manager of the Hadramout Investment Authority Khalid al-Sa’di explained that the 189 projects were cancelled as a result of investor negligence, following the grace period of four months given to them by the Hadramout governor. The governor’s actions came from directions issued by the President, which stipulated the cancellation of the licenses for projects after a designated expiry date. He highlighted that these measures were especially necessary for projects where no work has been done in the ten years since the issuance of the licenses.

Last year, the President ordered the cancellation of the land licenses of investors who had failed to begin their investment projects in Hadramout, despite the free land offered to them ten years ago. (Read on …)

Wow this was a long time coming, three years, 25 announcments and two withdrawn investors later, ta da…corner stone. In 2007, the agreement was delayed and delayed until certain issues were worked out.

A 2006 report documented deposits of four million tons of copper and nickel. The zinc deposit in Jabali contains a geological resource of 12.6 million tons of oxide ore, grading 8.9 per cent zinc, 1.2 per cent lead and 68g/t silver. A feasibility study (in 2006) conducted by ZincOx for the development of the Jabali deposit estimated a rate of 800,000 tonnes per annum of ore, with a grade of 9.2 per cent zinc, over a mine life of 12 years. Gold reserves were discovered with one estimated 687,000 ton geological reserve containing about 15 tons of gold. Yemen also has significant quantities of marble and granite.

Yemen Observer
Prime Minister Dr. Ali Mujwar laid the foundation stone for Yemen’s first and largest mine, in the area of Jabal Salab in the district of Nahm, 110km northeast of Sana’a. The giant investment project cost more than $200 million dollars, and was built by the Jabal Salab Company (Yemen) Limited. The project is a joint-venture between the Jabal Salab Company, the ANSAN Company, and the British firm ZincOx.

The mine will provide the country with a large source of lead, silver and zinc; crude ore alone is estimated at being over 12.6 million tones, and contains 8.86% pure zinc.

During the inauguration ceremony, the Prime Minister expressed the state’s desire to support the mining industry as one of the most important sources for Yemeni economic diversification. The state is keen to diversify the country’s economy in order to alleviate the over-reliance on oil exports. During the inauguration ceremony, the Prime Minister expressed his hope that this mine will be the first of many, as many such future projects are planned. This includes possible gold mining in Hadramout and Hajjah, and copper mining in Amran and Taiz.

Mr. Brett Grist, the manager of ZincOx Resources PLC in Yemen said that work on the project had been long going, commencing in 1980, however the project had already brought numerous benefits to the region. He expected exports to commence in the first half of 2010 with the mines first shipment of Yemeni Zinc.

In reference to the benefits this project will provide to the country, Mr. Grist stated that the project is likely to create 400 jobs, and more than 1,000 indirect employment opportunities, through related businesses. He added that Yemeni employees will be properly trained, and amount to 95% of the projects employees. He went on to say that equipment used to search for zinc will be transferred over to the country, allowing Yemeni’s to benefit in the future, through the use of the equipment to search for gold.

The citizens living in the area expressed their hopes for the success of the project, and thanked the companies involved for the opportunity to participate in the projects development. Dr. Ishmael al-Janad, the Head of the Geological Survey Authority said this project represents the development of the second largest sector of the Yemeni economy after oil.

Economists have said this project will have a strong impact on Yemen’s economy, ensuring the country’s future growth and development. In total, the returns from this project will amount to nearly $600 million for the country’s economy.

al Motamar

Almotamar.net – The World Bank WB said Monday that it intends to assist Yemen for facing ramifications of the drop in oil prices for enhancement of efforts and orientations of the Yemeni government aimed to diversify sources of national income and lessening dependence on oil revenues.

Vice President of the WB for the Middle East and North Africa Daniela Gressani, currently on a visit to Yemen, said there is a steady progress Yemen has achieved in implementation of reforms. Gressani added that the WB has raised the ceiling of the annual support to Yemen to $ 120 million and adopted since the last year to offer all forms of assistance to Yemen in the form of gifts instead of loans in order to support the Yemeni government efforts for encountering the world rise in food prices and facing consequences of the floods disaster that hit governorates of Hadramout and Mahara.

Gressani also praised the level of improvement in the government performance in Yemen especially in regards to carrying out the foreign sources-funded projects. She has also stressed the significance of donors meeting of their commitments to Yemen pertaining to completion of allocations they had pledged at London Donors Conference in November 2006. She revealed that the WB would work for urging donors to speed up completing allocations of their pledges.

On the reasons behind postponement of the 3rd consultative meeting between the Yemeni government and donors, scheduled to be held last Sunday in Sana’a, Ms Gressani said the postponement was imposed by coincidence of its convening with the date of holding an international conference of donors for the reconstruction of Gaza Strip. She added, in a statement to Saba news agency on Monday, the Gulf Cooperation Council GCC states proposed postponing the meeting to a later date in order to secure large attendance. And that has been agreed between the Yemeni government and the donors.

Blaming democracy not corruption.

Yemen Online

Yemen: “We don’t need a country the government of which doesn’t at all respect its own nationals.” A Yemeni tribe in Al-Jawf stated.
YemenOnline. Feb 22 – A number of Al Heridan – Almahashimah tribesmen in Al-Jawf governorate demanded withdrawal of all the government’s troops and military equipment off their land because they do not need a country the government of which doesn’t at all respect its own nationals. “Yemen Government practices all standards of racism and nepotism against us, and we are being marginalized in every aspect of our own rights.” said Al Heridan – Almahashimah tribesmen in a letter addressed to civil society organizations concerned in human rights issues. Calling on Saudi Arabia to embrace the tribe, the letter confirmed that Al Heridan – Almahashimah tribe does no longer need a system that overlooked them.

Yemen Online

Yemen Should be a Kingdome, seriously said Shiekh Mabkhoot Bin Hadhal.

YemenOnline, Special. Feb, 22 – “Yemen should be a Kingdome, and President Ali Saleh should be a king.” seriously said Shiekh Mabkhoot Bin Hadhal, Marib governorate in a special statement to YemenOnline. “My own point of view, which a huge number of Yemeni people share with me, is that Yemen’s democratic system is to be cancelled. We no longer need any political parties or the Parliament itself due to the fact that those parties proved to be just headache and they caused us a lot of troubles at all levels, even at the family level”, he added.”Huge amounts of money are wasted inefficiently on the electoral process which is in turn corrupt.”, he stated, highlighting the fact that Yemen is surrounded by Gulf Kingdoms and it is much better for Yemen to be a Kingdome too.”This is going to make it a lot easier for Yemen to join Gulf Cooperation Council” he added, expecting a strong denouncement among Yemeni political system and even among opposition parties themselves.”An 18-year of failure is enough to prove that the democratic experience is useless.”, he commented.

Yahya’s boy, Naba News, is oddly not responding to my query on their reporting. However, nearly all international organizations in Yemen are penetrated by regime informants. The UNHRC is not performing well for a variety of reasons and many, many in dire need are not assisted including Somali refugees and Christian converts.

Since I published the article from Yemen Online, I’ve heard from quite a few refugees in Yemen who are desperate for any kind of assistance and begging for their lives. I will document what I can, but the risks sometimes outweigh the benefits when it comes to the UN and Yemen. The UNHCR’s rebuttal is at Yemen Online, at least they published it. But really, Yemen is a Stalinistic system, are we going to pretend forever?

YemenOnline, Special. Feb 24 – YemenOnline received today a clarification email from Mr. Andrew Knight, UNHCR-Yemen Office in response to an article that YemenOnline had published on its website in February 18, 2009 concerning an Iraqi protest at the gate of UNHCR’s office in Sana’a.

“No such protest took place at any of our offices in Yemen and there was certainly no raging environment with a number of discontented Iraqi families headed for the gate of UNHCR office Mr. Andrew Knight confirmed in his email.

Stressing that “the picture accompanying the article is not of UNHCR’s offices in Sana’a or even in Yemen.”, he added that it was just “ONE male Iraqi refugee” who came to the office to renew his family’s documents for the coming year, and when physical presence of his family members was required, according to UNHCR security policy, he “proceeded in anger to tear up his papers and then threw them at our reception staff.”

“With regard to the US$ 10,000 that has to be paid to staff in order for the resettlement documents to be processed, Mr. Knight confirmed that “this is certainly not UNHCR policy and, if anybody has an allegation to make, UNHCR strongly encourages them approach the office and submit their allegation with evidence. The Office takes these issues very seriously and an investigation will be carried on any substantiated reports of resettlement fraud”

In fact, YemenOnline published the abovementioned article based on a report published on Nabanews website which is run by an Iraqi national resident in Yemen.

Background, for years there has been an issue:

IRIN report on Somai refugees 2005 protests: “They say they’re ready to die, one by one, if the UNHCR doesn’t give them their rights,” added Zeyad.

One of the refugees’ chief demands is that their national identity cards, which allow them to work and send their children to school, be renewed.

Many of the refugees complain that, once IDs expire, they are unable to exercise their legal rights as legal residents. “Our children can’t go to school and we can’t work without them,” said Abdullah Adam, a refugee in Yemen for 15 years. “We want the UNHCR to renew our cards.”

The refugees in Yemen are a burden and the camps they go to are horrible, but no one wants to annoy the regime too much:

“Yemen has carried a major burden in dealing with irregular migratory movements in the region, yet has maintained an open-door policy to
refugees,” said Claire Bourgeois, UNHCR’s Representative in Yemen.
“Support from the international community however remains an absolute
necessity.” UN

Global Integrity finds a “huge” gap between the law and its implementation.

Yemen earned very weak scores across the board, from civil society and government accountability to business regulation and the rule of law. The country’s executive, judicial, and legislative accountability mechanisms are among the worst assessed in 2008.

Although there are strong anti-corruption laws on the book, the anti-corruption agency is ineffective. Furthermore, political financing is generally unregulated, while civil society organizations are ineffective in fighting corruption. The media, which is subject to political interference, also receives poor ratings. Several journalists have been arrested, harassed, or imprisoned for their corruption-related investigative stories. Government control over private radio is among the most draconian in the world.

Update: Oh Yay, they are referencing my articles as well as this website in the media section. What happens a lot is the original links to Yemeni papers go down and the only copy is here, which is one function of the site, to provide a historical data base for researchers and others by category. The Yemen Observer trashed their entire archives with the last website upgrade, so the only detailed searchable history in English is at the Yemen Times and here.

Update 2: A very detailed and accurate report with excellent footnotes in all categories.

Links at the main page include scorecard:

Yemen: Integrity Indicators Scorecard

Overall Score: 46 (+/- 2.81) – Very Weak

Category I Civil Society, Public Information and Media 36 Very Weak
I-1 Civil Society Organizations 47 Very Weak
I-2 Media 35 Very Weak
I-3 Public Access to Information 27 Very Weak

Category II Elections 46 Very Weak
II-1 Voting & Citizen Participation 62 Weak
II-2 Election Integrity 65 Weak
II-3 Political Financing 11 Very Weak

Category III Government Accountability 30 Very Weak
III-1 Executive Accountability 45 Very Weak
III-2 Legislative Accountability 22 Very Weak
III-3 Judicial Accountability 17 Very Weak
III-4 Budget Processes 35 Very Weak

Category IV Administration and Civil Service 44 Very Weak
IV-1 Civil Service Regulations 28 Very Weak
IV-2 Whistle-blowing Measures 21 Very Weak
IV-3 Procurement 57 Very Weak
IV-4 Privatization 70 Weak

Category V Oversight and Regulation 52 Very Weak
V-1 National Ombudsman 53 Very Weak
V-2 Supreme Audit Institution 47 Very Weak
V-3 Taxes and Customs 50 Very Weak
V-4 State-Owned Enterprises 48 Very Weak
V-5 Business Licensing and Regulation 63 Weak

Category VI Anti-Corruption and Rule of Law 66 Weak
VI-1 Anti-Corruption Law 100 Very Strong
VI-2 Anti-Corruption Agency 56 Very Weak
VI-3 Rule of Law 54 Very Weak
VI-4 Law Enforcement 54 Very Weak

Human Rights Watch Report 2008 via UNHCR, rather straightforward:

Events of 2008

The human rights situation in Yemen has deteriorated markedly over the past several years. Yemen had previously made advances in the rule of law, setting out rights in the constitution, the penal code, and criminal procedure code. However, these have been eroded by hundreds of arbitrary arrests and several dozen enforced disappearances, mainly in the context of armed clashes in the north, but also relating to the government’s domestic counterterrorism efforts and crackdown on social and political unrest in the south of the country. (Read on …)

The poor people. The state comes, knocks down your house and sells your land for a park, and there’s nothing to do about it because the authorities you would appeal to are the ones driving the backhoe.

The concentration of land “ownership” substantial and growing due to the daily confiscation of private property. Its not just political and commercial monopolies.

Yemen Post: Dozens of families in the western province of Hudaida have been left homeless after backhoes that were guarded by many troops destroyed their homes in a north area in the province. Websites said that the area was largely devastated as the backhoes eliminated everything; the people’s homes along with all properties at them.

The people in the area were shocked because they were not notified before that such measure would be taken.

As the backhoes were accompanied by many troops from the Central Security Forces, the appeals of the people were met by oppression.

Influential officials tried many times before to take over our lands in this area and displace us but they failed and now they came supported by government orders to do so, people in the area said. (Read on …)

I spoke to a knowledgeable, normally skeptical person who said this is a credible figure and a credible scenario. So if we estimate $40.00 per barrel and 40 million barrels excluded from the official accounting, what is that, 1.6 billion, give or take some hundreds of millions?

The other thing to keep in mind is that government owned Safer took over after Hunt lost its PSA, so its likely the diversion of funds out of the government budget is continuing at a higher rate than ever.

Attagammua

Personalities involved in the window of the biggest corruption scandal in the country .. سرقة أكثر من 40 مليون برميل نفط Theft of more than 40 million barrels of oil
الأحد , 25 يناير 2009 م Sunday, January 25, 2009 m

“التجمع”-صنعاء/ خاص “Assembly” – Sana’a / special

علمت “التجمع” ان جهات وشخصيات نافذة في وزارة النفط متورطة في اكبر فضيحة فساد ونهب للمال العام تقدر قيمتها بمئات الملايين من الدولارات. Learned of the “Coalition” the views and personalities in the window of the Oil Ministry was involved in the biggest corruption scandal and the looting of public funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
وقالت مصادر حكومية رفيعة لـ”التجمع”: معززة بوثائق خطيرة ان اكثر من 40 مليون برميل نفط خام من حصة الحكومة تم التغاضي عن احتساب قيمتها ولم تستوعب في الدفتريات الحسابية الرسمية كاستحقاقات للحكومة بعد تقاسم حصة الانتاج بين شركة هنت ووزارة النفط اليمنية. Government sources said a high of “assembly”: enhanced documents serious that more than 40 million barrels of crude oil from the government’s share has been overlooked for the calculation of the value was not absorbed into the formal mathematical Aldvtrellat benefits for the government’s share of production-sharing venture between Hunt and the Yemeni Ministry of Oil.
كان انتاج اليمن حينذاك يتراوح ما بين 400 – 450 الف برميل وتقول المصادر: ان الوثائق الرسمية كشفت ان تلك الكمية (40 مليون برميل) تم الاستيلاء عليها على مدى سنوات وكان ذلك قبل بلوغ النزاع بين الدولة وشركة هنت الامريكية اوجه عندما رفضت الحكومة اليمنية التجديد للشركة في استثمار حقول صافر في العام 2005 ولجوء الطرفين الى محكمة دولية للفصل في النزاع وكانت المحكمة اصدرت في منتصف العام 2008 حكماً ببطلان ادعاء الشركة الامريكية وحكمت لصالح اليمن واثبتت حقها في استثمار حقل صافر وعدم التجديد لشركة هنت. Yemen was the production time ranges between 400 to 450 thousand barrels, sources say: The official documents revealed that the quantity (40 million barrels) has been seized over the years and this was before the conflict between the State and the U.S. company Hunt aspects when the Yemeni government has refused the renewal of the company whistling in the investment field in 2005 and by the parties to an international tribunal for the adjudication of the dispute, the court issued in mid-2008 ruling invalidating the U.S. company’s claim and ruled in favor of Yemen and has proved its right to invest in a wheezy and non-renewal of the Hunt.
وكانت “التجمع” قد اتصلت بمسؤولين بوزارة النفط للتعليق وعلمت ان توجيهات عليا صدرت الى وزير النفط الحالي الاستاذ أمير العيدروس لمتابعة هذه القضية ورفع تقرير بشأنها لرئيس الجمهورية, وقالت المصادر: إن وزير النفط وبعد التشاور مع السلطات العليا وجه رسالة رسمية الى النائب العام تطالبه بالتحقيق في القضية والكشف عن تفاصيلها وعن الجهات والشخصيات المتورطة وتقول مصادر “التجمع”: إن النائب العام شكل بموجب توجيهات رئاسية لجنة قضائية رفيعة من مسؤولين في النيابة العامة للتحقيق في القضية وعلى اثر ذلك تم استدعاء عدد من المسؤولين في وزارة النفط ولجنة تقييم الاحتياطي المعنية بالقضية وكان محللون ومراقبون للنزاع بين وزارة النفط وشركة هنت قد قالوا: إن جهات يمنية رفيعة قد لوحت لمسؤولي الشركة الامريكية اثناء جلسات المحاكمة الدولية وصدور الحكم لصالح الجانب اليمني.. The “assembly” had contacted the oil ministry officials for comment, and learned that the guidance issued to the high current Oil Minister Amir ALAIDEROOS professor to pursue this issue and submit a report thereon to the President of the Republic, the sources said: The Oil Minister, after consultation with higher authorities in a formal letter to the Attorney-General asking him to investigate in the case and the disclosure of the details and the actors and personalities involved and the sources say, “assembly:” The Attorney-General under the guidance of a presidential form of a judicial commission of high officials in the Attorney General to investigate the case and then was summoned a number of officials in the Oil Ministry and the Commission assessment of the reserve on the case and was Analysts and observers of the conflict between the Ministry of Oil and Hunt had said: The high points of Yemeni had signaled to U.S. officials during the meetings of the company’s international prosecution and sentencing for the Yemeni side .. ان الجانب اليمني مستعد لفتح الملف الخاص بـ(40 مليون برميل) اذا أقدمت الشركة الامريكية على استئناف الحكم الذي صدر لصالح اليمن وهو الامر الذي يعتقد المراقبون انه دفع مسؤولي شركة هنت الى قبول قرار المحكمة مقابل تغاضي الجانب اليمني عن ملف (40 مليون برميل). The Yemeni side was ready to open the file on the b (40 million barrels) if the U.S. company to appeal the ruling which was issued in favor of Yemen, which observers believe that the payment of officials Hunt to accept the decision of the court in exchange for tolerating the Yemeni side of the file (40 million barrels).
وقال خبير نفطي لـ”التجمع”: وهو على اطلاع بتفاصيل القضية, لو كان الجانب اليمني قد جدد لشركة هنت العمل في حقول صافر لعشر سنوات لما كانت الشركة حصلت على قيمة الـ(40) المليون برميل. The oil expert of the “assembly”: who is familiar with the details of the case, if the Yemeni side has been renewed for Hunt work in the fields of wheezy ten years since the company has recently obtained a value of (40) million barrels.

If the projects came to completion, they would have employed 26,000 people

Nearly 78 percent of investment projects in Aden have stalled, says a recent study

Yemen Times: A recent study conducted by the government revealed that 1132 investment projects in the Aden governorate have stalled or are no longer active, accounting for 78 percent of the total projects registered by the General Investment Authority.

The study was undertaken by a team from the branch of the investment authority in Aden and was headed by Mohammed Hilbub, professor of investment and supply in Aden University. The report also received support from the Germen Organization for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). According to the study, between 1992 and 2008, 601 projects have stalled and 531 remain registered by the authority but have failed to proceed as investors were unable to find land and supplies for the projects. (Read on …)

Aden, Laziqia ports to be twined
LAZIQIA, Dec. 19 (Saba) – Yemen ambassador to Syria Abdul-Wahab Tawaf discussed on Friday with the governor of the Syrian city governorate of El-Laziqia the executive procedures of the Joint Yemeni-Syrian Committee regarding twining the two ports of Aden city and El-Laziqia as well as establishing a direct sea line between them.

The discussed the executive steps of the cabinet regarding Yemen’s joining to the Syrian-Jordanian Company for Maritime Navigation.

On the other hand, Tawaf also met with rector of Tashreen University of El-Laziqia Mohammed Muala and discussed with him situations of Yemeni students in the university and means of reinforcing scientific cooperation between Yemeni and Syrian universities

Kudos to IFES for speaking plainly. Yemen Post

The ruling party allocated almost YR 60 billion to buy votes in the 2003 parliamentary elections in an attempt to increase its election opportunities in Parliament, an international expert specialized in the election affairs said.

Chief expert of political finance at the International Foundation for Election Systems IFES Dr. Marshen Walky, however, expressed regret over using such sum in what he described as political and electoral corruption while the sum was rather to used to implement infrastructure projects such as schools, hospitals and roads.

He said that a report by the IDEA Organization on democracy building in Yemen revealed that the ruling party in Yemen had allocated between YR 40-60 billion during the 2003 elections to buy votes.

At a press conference in Sana’a on Wednesday Walky said though the Yemeni election law bans buying electoral votes and using the public funds in elections, there is no observation or control of the spending of public funds on electoral campaigns.

He likened Yemeni legislations to Swiss cheese full of holes.

He urged that candidates must exercise transparency to disclose resources to fund their electoral campaigns.

Walky said political corruption linked to financing electoral campaigns is a threat to the whole development and the development of democracy in particular in any country as some businessmen endorse candidates in return these businessmen can ensure they can get back what they paid for electoral campaigns through obtaining contracts and investment tenders through winning candidates they endorse.

Walky brought up the misuse of the public funds during elections saying that international monitors judged the electoral process in 2006 was not totally fair due to exclusive use of public funds.

He said the EU mission, which observed the 2006 local and presidential elections in Yemen, found out that many officials used the country’s resources such as buildings, cars and ceremonies to succeed their electoral campaigns.

Walky said changing the electoral system will not solve the problem of political corruption; however, he said the Party-List system is the best solution to restrict buying votes, even if it will not tackle the problem completely.

He urged media to play a vital role in establishing awareness to curb illegal spending of candidates so that only efficient and right winners come to power.

(Read on …)

SABA

Yemen hands over Syria involved-drug trafficking companies list

DAMASCUS, Jan. 12 09 (Saba) – Yemen handed over on Monday to Syria a list of the Syrian companies involved in trafficking drugs to Yemen.

The list was delivered by the Yemeni ambassador to Damascus Abdul Wahab Tawaf to the Syrian Industry Minister Fouad Issa Juni.

The Ambassador told the minister that the companies facilitate hiding drugs within their goods exported to Yemen, demanding Syria to take deterrent measures against the companies and including them in the blacklist.

During the meeting, both sides discussed activating the cooperation protocols signed between the two countries to increase the trade exchange volume.

Even worse than Dijabouti

Yemen comes last among Arab states in terms of GDP per capita: report

SANA’A, Dec. 10 (Saba) – Yemen ranked last among Arab states in terms of the Gross Domestic Product per capita with $ 901, a report has said.

The report of the Arab Economic Unit Council, released on Sunday said Yemen recorded the lowest per capita income behind Mauritania whose GDP per capita reached $ 909.

Djibouti came ahead of the two states with GDP per capita of $977.

However, Qatar came in first place with $ 72.376, Emirates was in second place with $ 42.273, Kuwait third with $ 33.646, Bahrain fourth with $ 24.151, Saudi Arabia $ 15.158.

While the per capita GDP in Libya is $ 8903, in Lebanon $ 6243, in Algeria $ 3976, in Tunisia $ 3423, in Jordan and Iraq $ 2343, in Morocco $ 2290, in Syria $ 2136, in Egypt $ 1759 and in Sudan $ 1543.

The report said average per capita income in Arab states for the current prices raised to $ 4661 in 2007, up from $ 4188 in 2006, at a growth rate of 11.3 percent.

Corruption and the fractured nature of the government as well as bureaucratic inefficiency hinder progress on nearly every crisis the country is facing. The WB needs to stay on top of all funds in Yemen. And as the article notes, the strategy impacts the poor.

Bicusa

As Yemen suffers from water crisis, Bank support for water sector hinges on private sector solutions

8 December 2008

A recent meeting between the World Bank and the Yemeni Planning Minister focused on preliminary negotiations on a proposed water sector project. However, the central question remains whether the Bank is ensuring water access for the poor.

In October, the Yemeni news agency Saba reported on a meeting between the World Bank and the Government of Yemen that focused on discussions around a proposed $90 million grant to support Yemen’s national water strategy. Last week, the Bank disclosed documents that indicate new estimates on project approval and anticipated donor financing commitments, though they offer little in terms of substantive plans for the project.

Despite the large volume of money that is being committed for the project – with expected Dutch, British and German government contributions, the total is expected to surpass $380 million – it remains unclear what specifically will be financed. There is only scant information available from the World Bank, and the five-year national strategy on which the aid is based is not publicly accessible. According to World Bank documents, the Yemen Water Sector Support Project is expected to go to the Board for approval in February 2009.

At the same time, while the decision to finance Yemen’s water strategy as a Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) lends to better donor coordination, it raises the possibility that the process is driven by and tailored to donors, whose expected contributions together account for nearly two-thirds of the cost of the project.

Yemen is the least developed country in the region, and one of the world’s most water poor countries in the world, where per capita availability of water is only 2% of the world average, according to the World Bank. Yemen’s water crisis has not only hindered the efforts to reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth but has also resulted in social disputes over water wells and land ownership, as demand for water outstrips supply.

Rainfall represents the main source of water needed for agriculture and households, and nearly all of the rainfall evaporates. Reports show that about 90% of the ground water in Yemen is used for irrigation, mostly to grow qat, which accounts for roughly 40% of cultivated land. Meanwhile, in order to keep up with the increasing demand on water, landlords and private companies have been drilling unauthorized wells that have depleted Yemen’s groundwater.

Considering the depth of Yemen’s water crisis, the World Bank has rightfully emphasized water provision in its portfolio, as well as in its Country Assistance Strategy (CAS). Since 2000, the Bank has committed $303 million for the water sector, or 27% of approvals.

However, while preliminary project documents indicate that the bulk of the proposed Bank grant will support irrigation infrastructure and urban water systems, the nature of the investment remains unclear, including what if any policy changes in the water sector will accompany the grant. Typically, World Bank grants entail much more stringent conditions than loans that need to be repaid. To date, the Bank’s support for the water sector in Yemen has been predicated on fostering private sector involvement, particularly in urban water services, and in granting private companies the responsibility to assess water and demand levels and to determine prices. The Bank has also advised the government to lift subsidies on diesel, a major expense in qat cultivation

Some observers have raised concerns about how effective the World Bank’s interventions have been in addressing Yemen’s water problems, and questioned the impact and rationale of the Bank-supported strategies such as introducing water tariffs, encouraging public-private partnerships, pushing for a greater private sector role, and lifting subsidies on maintenance, spate irrigation, and diesel. These advocates have suggested that the Bank’s approach to date has placed a disproportionate emphasis on private sector solutions to Yemen’s pressing water needs, and that these efforts have not been accompanied by adequate measures to mitigate adverse impacts on the poor and ensure equitable access.

www.alghadyem.net

Received an official note tomorrow to complain about the Coast Guard and the Customs Directorate of the coastal province of Hodeidah beard that their employees are threatened by the border guards prevented from carrying out their duties in the seizure and prosecution of smugglers of petroleum products, sheep from Africa across the coast of the Directorate.
وأوضح مصدر محلي مسؤول في المديرية، فضل عدم الكشف عن هويته، بأنه قد تم إبلاغ الجهات المعنية بالمحافظة والعاصمة بالقضية، إلا أنه لم يتم اتخاذ الإجراءات القانونية لوقف عمليات التهريب، ومحاسبة حرس الحدود المرابطين في المنطقة ممن يقومون بحماية المهربين بالتعاون مع مجموعة من مشائخ المنطقة المتنفذين. The source said a local official in the Directorate, on condition of anonymity, that he had been informed stakeholders and to maintain the capital case, however, are not taken legal action to stop the smuggling operations, and to hold the border guards stationed in the region who were protecting the smugglers in collaboration with a group of the region Mchaik powerful.
وأكد المصدر بأن ظاهرة تهريب الأغنام والمشتقات النفطية إلى بلادنا من إفريقيا تسير بوتيرة عالية وبصورة علنية عبر سواحل المديرية، وخاصة في خور المديرية ومرسى العلوي دون أي حسيب أو رقيب، وبحماية من حرس الحدود المتواجدين في المنطقة، والذين يقومون بمنع أفراد خفر السواحل والجمارك بالمديرية من مزاولة أعمالهم في مكافحة التهريب وضبط المهربين وهم في حالة تلبس، كما يمنعونهم من ترقيم القوارب اليمنية والأجنبية والكشف عليها أو تفتيشها. The source added that the smuggling of sheep and oil derivatives in the country of Africa is moving quickly across the public and the coast of the Directorate, particularly in the Directorate and the creek without any upper berth total impunity, and to protect the border guards who are in the area, who are members of the prevention of the Coast Guard and the Customs Directorate of the to operate in the fight against smuggling and smugglers who are controlling in the case of flagrante delicto, and prevented the boats from the numbering of the Yemeni and foreign disclosure or inspection.

Only half of the finacial disclosure statements were received, there’s still 5000 outstanding.

Yemen Times
SANA’A, Dec. 3 — Forty-nine complaints against various government bodies have been forwarded to the Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption in the third quarter of this year. Only one of the complaints was transferred to persecution while 19 were dismissed as irrelevant to the authority’s field of work. (Read on …)

Is the budget suplemental 66 Billion or 660 Billion? Its a different figure in every paper.

Yemen Post

In its recent meeting, the council of ministers approved a project for an additional credit during the current financial year at YR 66 billion.

Even with the profits in oil and other resources the country has been getting, it still relies on donors to finance the different development projects as loans and donation packages to the country have reached $800 million, according to the annual reports presented by the Central Administration for Control and Auditing (COCA).

As to the crimes of wasting and pillaging the public money, COCA listed over 1165 crimes of waste for public money over the last three years. The total amount of money wasted during the last three years are as follows: YR19 billion, $14 million, 3 million euros and 2 million marcs, together with 18 cars and large areas of lands. (Read on …)

28 public funds cases completed in Hodeidah

HODEIDAH, Oct.06 (Saba)- Appeal Court for Public Funds in Hodeidah branch completed during the last nine months 28 cases with an executive seizer decision to pay public debts at $ 288,875, in addition to YR16 million.

In a statement to Saba, chairman of the prosecution judge Eshak Salah said that the prosecution has returned millions of meters of lands to the state during the period from January to September.

He added that the prosecution completed during the same period around 88 public funds cases and referred them to court and 7 cases which were referred to concerned bodies.

Nice of him to spread it around a little.

The al-Saleh’s mosque is partially opened on the advent of Ramadan as many people from Sana’a and visitors from the governorates went to pray in it.

The president’s mosque which is built on the president’s expense is considered to be an immense Islamic building and one of Sana’a city distinctive features. Its cost is mounted to $60 million.

Yemen Observer

thats over 1/4 mil US

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Aug. 3 — A parliamentary report reveals corruption over the past two years at Aden Oil Refineries, a company belonging to the Yemeni government. Prepared by the Parliament-affiliated Oil and Minerals Development Committee, the report indicates that corruption at Aden Oil Refineries “consumed $200 million from public finances.” The committee prepared its report in light of its field visits to the refineries over the past four years.

Based on analysis of figures in the public budget and the Central Monitoring Apparatus, the results indicate that corruption was rampant within the administration of Aden Oil Refineries, one of the region’s oldest established energy companies. The oil refinery dismissed the report as “mere personal speculation.” (Read on …)

The importation and distribution of medicines is riddled with corruption, which impacts directly on the standard of living of the entire population.

YO

The German Hammer Forum threatened to quit from Yemen if the sequestration of the organization’s containers continued in Hodiedah port.

The organization’s coordinator, Dr. Ali Al-Zakhmi, said that the organization is studying pulling out from Yemen if the health sector’s authorities continued their rigidity against them despite the charitable health services they provide to the Yemeni children in particular.

Al- Zakhmi said that the higher medical authority is still sequestrating 93 medicines and medical equipment packages, which the organization sent to al-Thawra Hospital in Taiz, since last February. He added that the organization donated these medical appliances and medicines to Taiz al-Thawra Hospital yet the higher medical authority holds them under the excuse that they contain foreign medical appliances incompatible to the specifications. (Read on …)

SNACC looms prosecuting 1650 Yemeni officials

SANA’A, Sep. 13 (Saba)- The Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC) loomed on Saturday prosecuting 1650 Yemeni officials who didn’t deliver their financial disclosures yet.

Member of NSACC Mohammed al-Matari said that the number of financial disclosures received by the national commission reached to 5200 financial disclosures.

The al-Matari pointed out that the SNACC had sent legal notes to officials in some government bodies whom exceeded the legal limit for the delivery of financial disclosures.

“The SNACC is going to take a legal action against those officials”, said al-Matari.

Workshop on failure of investment projects in Aden to be held

[29 August 2008]

ADEN, Aug. 29 (Saba)- Economic sources said on Friday that a workshop would be held in Aden province next Saturday for reviewing and assessing unimplemented projects.

The sources affirmed that 200 projects have been faltering in the province as well as some projects have been transferred from investment projects to housing purposes.

The workshop will be organized by the General Authority for Investment (GAI) in collaboration with German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

The sources added that the workshop would be attended by about 60 investors and representatives of the General Authority for the Lands, the Chamber of Aden Commerce and Industry and other government bodies to assess the causes of the failure of those investment projects in Aden.

YJS dispute about admission of new members delays elections, Yemen Post

The Editor in Chief of Al-Ray Al’am (Public Opinion) newspaper Kamal Al-Olfi revealed that his newspaper’s office was set into fire by anonymous elements last Friday.

Al-Olfi mentioned in a press release that the fire was casued by petrol, which was poured outside the office’s door, therefore, setting the entire office on fire, hinting some of the office equipments were destroyed completely.

Stressing that the paper will not change its stance, Al-Olfi accused corruption forces of standing behind the incident especially when his paper has been launching wide campaigns to criticize corruption and corrupt officials.

In its recent issues, the paper attacked the Minister of Local Administration Abdul Qader Ali Hilal and a number of commercial institutions.

For its part, Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) described the incident to be a dangerous development targeting independent newspapers. It also considered this incident to be a new way for intimidating the independent media.

The syndicate demanded Interior Ministry to launch a prompt investigation into the circumstances of the incident and to reveal those who were behind it.

In related news, YJS will hold elections next October to vote for a new council. Though these elections were supposed be conducted last June, political differences over admitting new members among the syndicate’s affiliates pushed the syndicate’s presidency to delay the elections.

two, i guess thats a step in the right direction but its a long journey ahead

Anti-corruption authority refers two cases to public prosecution

SANA’A, Aug. 20 (Saba) – The Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC) announced on Monday that it had filed two cases against the project of repairing the Cairo citadel in Taiz province and allocations related to supporting Yemeni communities’ schools abroad due to financial irregularities.

In its reported submitted recently to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the parliament, the authority said that the results of its investigations in the first case had revealed financial abuses reached more than YR 2 billion, adding that the second corruption case included the abuse of public office and exploiting it to achieve personal benefits which damaged the public funds.

“The authority is still pursuing the liquidation of the financial disclosures accumulated by the cultural attachés of Yemen embassies abroad, affirming that they did not present financial reports for the period 2001 to 2007.

According to the report, more than YR 4 billion and 257 million of the total financial disclosures reaching about YR 16 billion and 81 million had been settled till the end of last June.

The government body said it had received 71 complaints during the second quarter of 2008, noting it is completing the investigations in nine corruption cases, including irregularities related to biddings and bids, forgery offences and the seizure of public funds and properties as well as tax and customs evasions.

YT

SANA’A, July 22 — The Anticorruption Authority (SNACC) stated that it has received 3,200 financial declarations from various government officials and 212 notifications on issues regarding corruption, some of which were transferred to the Office of Public Prosecution to begin cracking down on government corruption.

Since it began last year, SNACC has been trying to enforce a new law that requires government officials to turn in financial statements to the authority. This way SNACC can track any suspicious fund transfers and look out for financial abuses perpetrated by government employees.

“SNACC activated a law about financial declarations and started with the Prime Minster and the members of the cabinet,” said Bilqis Abu Osba’a, the Head Deputy of SNACC. “Now it receives financial declarations from governorates as well.”

Ahmed Al-Anesi, the Chief of SNAAC, said at conference this week with Transparency International (TI) that his office is looking for ways to promote international cooperation in the field of anti-corruption. Al-Anesi added that the Anti-Corruption Authority is devoted to partnering with TI and promised to make use of the support it offered in the consultancy and technical fields.

Transparency International is a network of civil society organizations that help monitor global corruption and work to help install good financial practices in place of corruption in the hardest-hit countries worldwide.

The organization releases a corruption index every year, which rates more than 150 countries on a scale of 10 (least corrupt) to Zero (highly corrupt) based on perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments, opinion surveys and the Transparency International Index Advisory board.

In 2007, Yemen scored a 2.5 (compared to the lowest score of 1.4 for both Somalia and Myanmar). However, the organization points out that this score is not a judgment on Yemeni citizens at all. “Corruption by a limited number of powerful individuals, and failure of leaders and institutions to control or prevent corruption, does not imply that a country or its people are most corrupt,” said Transparency International’s 2007 index report.

On Tuesday’s conference, Al-Anesi spoke about the steps that SNACC has taken to build up institutions inside Yemen, such as bettering communication between the different authorities concerned with financial oversight and fighting corruption at the local, national and international levels.

Anticorruption expert and former German Technical Cooperation director, Dr. Hans Elhorst, affirmed the importance of a coalition between the Anticorruption Authority and the governmental bodies that it monitors. He also said that the civil society, media and private sector are crucial to eradicating Yemen’s corruption problem. “I stress the importance of conducting awareness campaigns, because the state is not the only one responsible for anticorruption,” said Elhorst.

“We tried to learn about other countries’ experiences in fighting corruption and what the public opinions are in societies that fight corruption,” said Abu Osba’a. During TI’s visit, SNACC reviewed similar anticorruption programs in other Middle Eastern and North African countries such as Palestine, Morocco and Lebanon.

“TI does a lot regarding anticorruption; first, it consolidates national transparency. It supports the countries that have system of transparency and offers expertise and consultations for countries,” explained Abu Osba’a.

Besides scoring countries on their corruption, TI also ranks the countries according to corruption levels. Yemen is currently ranked at 131 for the year 2007, but Abu Osba’a said that with the effort exerted by the Anticorruption Authority, both Yemen’s score and ranking will improve in 2008.

SNACC officials said that they work on two main objectives. The first one is the systematic and institutional construction of the authority. The second is activating the anticorruption law through three provisions included in it: First, investigation, scrutiny and judiciary follow-up. The second provision is poverty prevention. The third provision is about spreading awareness and educating citizens on the importance of fighting corruption.

Abu Osba’a mentioned that two lawsuits resulting from officials’ financial statements have already been transferred to judiciary. One of the lawsuits concerns Al-Qahira castle in the Taiz governorate, but Abu Osba’a refused to elaborate on the other. She added that SNACC has the right to interfere in any case and has the right to ask for any information from any other Yemeni authority.

The Anticorruption Authority has a department for notifications and complaints, which average citizens can use to report incidents of corruption or fraud that they have witnessed. The authority will then conduct an investigation into the claim and search for evidence carefully before it transfers any lawsuit to the Office of Public Prosecution, said Abu Osba’a. She added that SNACC will also follow up on media reports about corruption.

SNACC is also in the process of amending some laws that contradicts new anti-corruption measure, said Abu Osba’a, adding that the SNACC is also conducting a study with the World Bank to determine the level of corruption in Yemen.

Theres corruption and then theres grand corruption, elite capture of the vast majority of national resources and wealth on an organized and methodical basis. The best report ever I think was the Journalists Against Corruption report Available here. This YO report is a tad confusing on what the numbers mean:

Tender corruption is currently costing millions of dollars worth of public wealth. This came in a statement for the Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC) manager, Ahmed al-Anisi, at a debate organized by the al-Saeed establishment last Thursday.

Al-Anisi said that they cooperated with other authorities to issue cabinet resolutions to cancel all private authorizations. Al-Anisi helped in controlling some important corruption cases, pointing out that both public and opposition press were their source for discovering some of the corruption cases, mentioning the atomic energy case as an example. He reviewed their achievements as realized in the discussion of the scholarship case and the deductions on the students’ bursaries at the higher Education Ministry.

He ensured the recovery of YR 2 billion and YR 600,000, with several cases being referred to prosecution following long tedious procedures…. (Read on …)

SNACC to refer 1000 officials to prosecution

[05 July 2008]

SANA’A, July 05 (Saba) – The Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC) threatened 1000 governmental officials to be referred to the public prosecution due to not submitting their financial disclosures to the authority.

The head of the Financial Disclosure Sector at the SNACC Mohammad al-Matari said that the authority sent last week messages to 1000 officials in more than 12 ministries indicating to their financial disclosures’ delay, the GPC-run almoatamr.net stated Saturday.

In strongly worded messages, the authority gave a week for those officials to submit their financial disclosures, otherwise it will refer them to the prosecution on charge of refusing implementing the Financial Disclosures Law.

Worth mentioning, SNACC received till the middle of last June 2400 financial disclosures for officials from various government bodies.

Yemen Post

Ten days before announcing the new ministerial reshuffle, Minister of Expatriates Affairs Saleh Sumi’ee resigned from his post in protest against the constant demands by the head of investigation sector at the Anti-corruption committee to pay the due sums for the Yemeni community schools in the Horn of Africa.

Sumi’ee hinted that the head of the education center for community schools Abdul Bari Al-Dhamari embezzled YR 45 million over the years 1998 to 2002 at the leniency of Finance and Expatriates’ Affairs ministries. (Read on …)

Good report by the SNACC. It would be nice if there was any judicial enforcement to back up the investigations. YO

The first comprehensive investigation into corruption in Yemen has revealed 8709 corruption cases in the past 3 years. Astonishingly, 3932 of these occurred in 2007 alone. The offenders were the Ministries of Education, Health and Population, and Labour, Works and Roads. The most corrupt governorates were Ibb, Aden, al-Muhrah, and al-Muhwaid. (Read on …)

Me too! Elite capture of donors’ funds is a very tragic and common circumstance. And the Dutch have supported Yemen for a long time in a benevolent manner and really do good work, or try to, until the funds get stolen from the mouths of the hungry people.

Alsahwa.net -The Dutch Embassy in Yemen expressed sorrow over misusing its technical and financial support provided to Shabwa province in the frame of mutual cooperation.

“We were deeply shocked that the three cars supplied by embassy were delivered to members of administrative authority” The Dutch ambassador to Yemen Harry Buikema said in a letter directed to the Shabwa governor Mohammad al-Rwaishan.

Buikema’s letter which Alsahwa.net has a copy of it demanded the governor to offer a final report of the technical and financial support.

“I wish the embassy be able to visit the province through June-July to discuss future cooperation” Buikema said.

A majority of the ruling party in Shabwa had voted in April 2008 for distributing cars granted by the embassy to the heads of the local council amid fierce objection of the opposition members.

News Yemen

SANA’A, NewsYemen

Yemen Journalist Anti-Corruption, NGO, has released its first report on corruption for 2007. The report has disclosed cases of corruption in many state institutions.
The report, prepared in cooperation with Yemeni Women Journalist Without Chains, the cabinet, Ministry of Defense and Presidential Office came first in a long list of institutions that practiced corruption in 2007costing the country over YR 452 billion, according to the report. Most of the amount was granted for projects which the government has not planned and studied well, said the report.

The report said the government has not benefited from assistances estimated at YR 7.7 billion due to misconduct. It said the government has been contradictory with transparency policy and has not offered explanation about what it called “undistributed costs” estimated at YR66.5 billion.

Meanwhile, the official website 26sep.net has condemned the report of “the so-called Yemen Journalists Anti-Corruption organization” on corruption cases in different ministries and other institutions”. It said the report was based on individual assessment and inadequate analysis.

The report contained moral and scientific blight as accusations against national institutions, like the Defense Ministry, of corruption have been derived from individual evaluation, said the report.

On the other hand, the Supreme National Anti-Corruption Committee (SNACC), president Saleh formed last year to fight corruption, has denied press reports that the commander of Republican Guards Yahya Mohammad Abdullah Saleh has presented a financial disclosure to SNACC .

Yemen Observer

The Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC) announced last week that it is finishing investigations on six corruption cases, dysfunctions and financial violations of about YR 20 billion, said Dr. Bilqis Abu Usba’a in a recent report issued by SNACC. This report comes every three months and is submitted to the president and the Parliament as a disclosure of these cases. These cases are among 141 claims that SNACC received since the authority’s establishment last year.

The authority received 78 of these claims in the period from January to the end of March 2008. The authority’s report enlisted the major tasks that they undertook at the first quarter of this year, disclosing that most of the claims are allegations that are not competitive to the corruption concepts, and they are of a procedural judicial type. It said that 16 of these are of an administrative nature which the authority has no legal authorization to undertake.

Regarding the cases that are computable with corruption, the report confirmed that six of them are about to finish, while the others are still under investigation and follow up.

The cases, according to the report that are about to be completed, include Taiz-al-Turba road rehabilitation project, where the authority discovered financial violations amounting to YR 117 million out of the total agreed amount of YR 971 million

The scholarship trustee money of the higher education is also on of the authority’s discoveries, where the their investigations disclosed that there are accumulated trustee money in more than 27 countries, amounting to YR16,081,146,000 during the period 2001-2007.

The investigations on this case showed that there 2053 unauthorized applications, exerting pressure on the ministry and preventing application of equal opportunities, despite the president’s directions not to accept any illegal applications.

The report added that SNACC met with the minister and the relevant officials at the higher education, and agreed to summon the cultural attaches in order to settle the trustee money and to submit them to the prosecution, pursuant to the law.

The two sides agreed that an open meeting will be held for the relevant officials to come to a long term strategy that reconsiders scholarships situations.

The third case concerned the investigations over the Cairo fortress restoration, which disclosed YR3,559,698,000 violations in 2002, amounting to ten times of the project’s original cost reaching an amount of YR118 million.

The violations come under article 30 of the corruption law, notwithstanding the tender laws and the financial systems, on the procedures of the project’s implementation stages.

According to the periodic report the project was contracted in 2002 according to the then prevailing prices, which exceed those of 2007 prices, yet there were no technical designs, specifications, certain amounts in addition to entire absence of engineering observance to the project. This is in addition to granting the contractor reimbursement prices and technical specifications price differences in addition to undeserving transport and risk allowance costs.

The report stated that the authority stopped paying any extra sums to the contractor, and appointed an investigation team to assess the so far accomplished works to settle the real contractor’s accounts. The authority also asked COCA to conduct an audit.

The fourth case concerned the Thamar university staff ‘s claim over fraud in the faculty of engineering’s tender, however the authority addressed the prosecution to proceed on the case which is filed before them. It wrote to the Higher Education Ministry in order to return to work the staff members, who were transferred and replaced by others for filing the case, to their posts and to pay them back all their dues.

The fifth case was over the discovery of the authority that the Expatriate Ministry did not settle their trustee money for support of the East African community schools’ accounts for 1999-2007.

The authority according to the report asked the expatriate ministry to provide the payment documents of 1999-2007, however the ministry did not respond despite the repeated addressing.

In the authority’s report to the president and the Parliament, the authority said that they received 1060 financial disclosure reports at the first quarter of this year raising the total to 1219 during the period of September 2007 up to last March.

Law 30 from 2006 of the Financial Disclosure Act is applicable to all higher officials, higher administrative posts and higher financial posts. It also included the first quarter’s issues, cases being discussed, the resolutions, meetings and activities.

Law 39 from 2006 for anti-corruption stipulates that SNACC should submit unified quarterly reports to the president and the Parliament.

More good news

Yemen Observer:

A large number state employees numbering 9,600 were fired by the Ministry of Civil Service for failing to give their automated fingerprints on time, said Minister of Civil Service Hamoud al-Soufi last Tuesday.

In a statement to Yemen satellite TV channel, al-Soufi said the decision was taken after the different ministries and state institutions affirmed those employees have over passed the legal period of absence and for not come to give their electronic fingerprints on time. The fired employees are believed to be either ghost employees or ones that had dual jobs and did not want to be discovered they had more than a job.

Also, in its session held last Tuesday, the cabinet ministers approved the decision of the Ministry of Civil Service to adopt the new DERMALOG MultiFinger Biometrics system for payments of all the state employees across the country starting from July 2008. The system will also be used for the employees daily signing in. (Read on …)

Anti-Corruption Parliamentarians May Face Charges For Uncovering Corruption

And what do these percentages mean? How much of the ministry’s budget is lost to corruption?

Yemen Online

YEMEN: Oil, military and security “most corrupted” areas – says report
Sana’a, April 29, 2008 (Yemenonline.info) – Yemen’s Parliamentarians Against Corruption (YEMEN PAC) recently issued a report demonstrating that corruption is widespread in the areas of oil, military and security.

According to the report corruption is spread the most in the fields of oil, military and security.

“Corruption spreads in the oil, military and security areas by 87.2%, 61.8% and 60.9% respectively,” said the report.

A government source firmly denied the content of the report on the multitude of corruption in government sectors.

According to the report, corruption spreads in the areas of health, diplomacy, fisheries and agriculture by 53.6%, 48.1%, 35.4% and 33.6% respectively.

Doha-based Al-Jazeera kept broadcasting excerpts from the report during all its business news briefs on Monday.

The source asserted the government’s right to prosecute those who prepared the report for harming and libeling the country by allegedly providing false information about its institutions.

“The government may also demand lifting diplomatic immunity of those parliamentarians,” the source concluded.

News Yemen

Good for the bio section
(Read on …)

Yemen Post

Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Saleh Basurah called on dignitaries and social personalities not to exercise more pressure on state to establish new universities, hinting that any expansion in this respect does not serve the development.

Basurah hinted the existing universities have not yet set completely their infra-structure and buildings, adding that his ministry is working at the present time on the preparing higher education law draft which will be referred to the cabinet next month.

Likewise, the ministry is working on academic accreditation system and quality assurance which will be applied on both government and private universities, calling for the establishment of more community colleges instead of universities.

Meanwhile, Basurah threaten to disclose the practices of high-ranking officials and some members of parliament who exercise pressure on his ministry to distribute scholarships for those who do not deserve them and in a way that does not serve the country.

In a meeting involving the anti-corruption authority and Minister of Finance Noman Al-Suhaibi by the end of the last week, Basurah threatened to resign from his post in case he is sued for errors committed by others.

Sources pointed out that Basurah asked the anti-corruption authority to help him rid of the interferences of high-ranking officials in running his ministry’s affairs, or otherwise he would expose the secrets on any satellite channel.

For their part, the anti-corruption authority demanded Basurah to hand in the file of financial and cultural attaches abroad including the attaches of Jordan and Malaysia who failed to submit a financial disclosures.

By the end of the meeting, officials ordered withholding the allocations of all attaches who have not presented their financial disclosures. They also asked for take serious measures against those who delay the payment of students’ money together with starting payment right from the next year through the Ministry of Higher Education only.

Kudos to the SNACA for addressing the issue. Where did the money go? That’s a lot of money.

al-Motamar

Almotamar.net – The Supreme National Anti-Corruption Authority (SNACA) gave Yemeni cultural attaches in Yemeni embassies in 46 countries a 2-month time to settle funds in their charge before it takes measures against them and holds them accountable according to its authorities under the law.

The member of the SNACA, the head of information sector Yassin Abdeh Saeed the funds under care of the cultural attaches in 46 countries that since 2001 have not been settled amount to YR 16 billion, 81 million and 142 thousand, affirming the Authority’s follow-up of this issue with the ministry of higher education.

In this regard the SNACA official praised the cooperation shown by the Yemeni minister of higher education Dr Saleh Basura in this issue and issues of failures of which Mr Saeed the minister opposes them.

Let me guess, the Saudi wheat that was donated to Yemen

ADEN

1800 tons of national goods exported to Somalia, Djibouti

Around 1800 tons of national goods were exported via Muala Sea Port in Aden City on Saturday to Djibouti and Somalia.

The goods exported to Somalia were biscuits, soap and sweets, in addition to 800 tons of wheat to Djibouti.

According to the statistics of the port, 32,752 tons of cement were unloaded in the platform of the port. The port also received on Saturday 1,115 sheep from Somalia.

al-Motamar

American official advises Islah media to use suitable words
Sunday, 06-April-2008
Almotamar.net – An American official has recently advised those in charge of the media of Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen (Yemeni Congregation for Reform) Islah Party to be keen on using suitable expressions, affirming that the ceremony of signing the assistance to Yemen by the foundation of the millennium challenge has been postponed and not suspended, as it was mentioned in a question put forward by Al-Sahwa newspaper, organ of the Islah party.

In an interview to Al-Sahwa newspaper published in its issue of last Thursday, Director of the American Agency for Development in Yemen Mike Sarhan lauded the Yemeni government commitment to reform in all areas, repeating his confirmation that Yemen has walked a long distance since the convention of London conference in 2006 as it has taken serious reform steps, among them for instance the approval of the law of purchases and legislations of anti-corruption as well as the establishment of the higher committee for tenders and bids.
Responding to a question on delivering the support funds to the Yemeni government for implementing projects and whether there is no confidence in honesty and seriousness of the Yemen government in implementing the projects, head of the American Agency for Development said the question is not a matter of non-confidence in integrity of the government and pointed out that in all the countries where it is present the Agency takes implementing partners close to the communities and areas that the Agency desires for carrying out its programmes and for helping them. Therefore, the Agency engages the beneficiary communities, civil society organisations, the local governments and those entertaining necessary efficiency for implementing services programmes.

The American official said that is not applied to Yemen alone but rather it is the policy of the American agency wherever it is =resent, pointing out that the agency has last year signed an agreement with the Yemeni ministry of planning and international cooperation on carrying out anti-corruption programmes.
On his assessment of performance of the Supreme National Anti-Corruption Authority Mr Sarhan made it clear that any new organisation may need a year or two before it can work and implement the tasks they are assigned to it completely. He said nevertheless that his personal assessment of the authority is very good and added that the American Agency for Development would offer help to the authority for moving to its new premises and provide necessary equipment for it such as computers as well as sending many of its members to several countries like Malaysia and Indonesia for training courses.

Yemen Post

Saadaldeen Bin Talib, Supreme National Anti Corruption Committee Member (SNACC):
“For corruption to be fought in Yemen, it will not only require the committee to do their duty, but it will require all citizens to feel the responsibility of fighting corruption in Yemen, and the importance it will have in our life. In the end, the poor will benefit the most when corruption is gone.”

Interviewed By: Hakim ALmasmari ( YEMEN POST STAFF )
Article Date: April 07, 2008

YP: Are there any obstacles faced by The Supreme National Anti Corruption Committee (SNACC)?

ST: Naturally there are some difficulties in the work of our committee. The first is that it was newly established only nine months ago. Secondly, we still don’t have a permanent office that can hold our staff. We don’t have the power to employee enough staff to carry out this task.

YP: What is the percentage of corruption cases that the committee has been able to solve?

ST: Our concern is about the importance of those cases that come and results we give, not the quantity. We have some high-profile cases which have been published in the press including those of the Ministry of Electricity and Ministry of Water. Still, some other cases are in the prosecution. (Read on …)

Still not going to the highest bidder, wonder why?

Yemen Post

In a symposium organized by Al-Tagheer.net, economic experts stressed that government should bring the agreement relating to operating and developing Aden Container Terminal before parliament for discussion, and demanded it to act responsibly with this issue because the terminal is of vital economic importance to the country.

The participants also demanded the government to reconsider all agreements as to operating Aden Container Terminal, hinting all the previous agreements are not binding to the country because they harm its interest.

They further stressed that an international tender for operating Aden Terminal should be announced through which qualified and eligible companies can bid, maintaining that the bidding process should be conducted according to the tenders law, together with presenting it to parliament for approval.

Several papers have been presented during the symposium including one paper by Ayman Mohammed Nasser who pointed out that bidding or buying the government institutions should be referred to parliament for approval and later a republican decree should come next.

Political science professor Abdullah Al-Faqih warned against the new agreement signed with Dubai Ports Authority, stressing the agreement wastes Yemen’s financial rights. He also indicated that partnership of 50 percent of profits is not beneficial, and maintained this could lead other bidding companies to sue the Yemeni government.

Al-Faqih added that the bidding of the three companies was as follows:

1. Kuwaiti alliance with $462 million.

2. Philippines International Services with $451 million.

3. Dubai Ports with $297 million, hinting the best bid was offered by the Kuwaiti company and instead of declaring it as the successful bidder or having negotiations, Yemeni government decided to re-ask for new tenders.

In return, former Member of Parliament Salim bin Talib declared that the government withdrew the agreement from parliament in an effort to pass the agreement away from the parliament‘s control, adding that any agreement like that of Aden Terminal should not be signed only under the approval of parliament.

For his part, Mohamed Abdul Majeed Al-Qubati expressed his sorrow over the appalling situation of Aden Terminal, mainly because of the confused and unclear government policies.

Al-Qubati, however, indicated that Aden can be an international port and cited an American report speaking of the possibility of turning Aden Terminal into the most important free zone in the Middle East.

Economists and MPs demanded the formation of a civil coalition to defend Aden Terminal and maintained that it was a famous port in the past.

Yemeni businessman Saleh bin Fareed Al-Surimah pointed out the eligibility of his company Gulf and Kuwait Coalition Company (KGL) to operate and develop Aden Terminal and hinted that several parties cheated and beguiled in an effort to deprive KGL of it.

Al-Surimah emphasized the agreement with Dubai Ports is invalid and it abuses people’s right, hinting that if those people succeed in passing this dubious deal, this could help corrupted officials to pass the selling of other government institutions like Aden Refinery, etc. in the future.

He also requested President Saleh to act according to his constitutional responsibility to stop what he named as misuse and abuse in Aden Terminal because it does not serve the country’s interests.

Government approves contractor, supplier blacklist draft

[25 March 2008]
SANA’A, March 25 (Saba) – Government approved in its regular meeting held on Tuesday a blacklist draft of violators from Yemeni and non-Yemeni contractors, suppliers and consultants in all fields.

A committee is to be formed headed by minister of public works and roads to be in charge of the blacklist that aims at eradicating manipulation and procrastination of carrying out the projects and reducing the problems raising while implementing them.

The committee will follow up the contracts’ implementation level, encourage contractors, suppliers and consultants to improve their professional and economic performance and eliminate delay causes as well as depriving the violators of them from receiving any projects during the fixed time in the blacklist.

Yemen Observer:

The Public Money Prosecution managed to recover YR1 billion in embezzled public funds in 2007.

Dr. Abdul al-Malik al-A’wash, a lawyer with the Public Money Prosecution, declared that YR1,000,248,747 was recovered in addition to $284,000 and 2300 Euros, due to sequestration and attestation rulings in embezzlement cases in the same year.

Al-A’wash said that they received 1,758 cases in all governorates last year, and 589 of them were considered serious.

Al-A’wash added that verdicts were passed on 202 of these cases, 832 are still undergoing investigation, while 20 were dropped due to lack of jurisdiction. Decisions of absence of right were passed on 204 of the cases. He added that they received 68 cases from the Central Organization for Control and Audit (COCA), asserting that the Capital Secretariats in Aden, Taiz, Hodeida, Hadramout, Lahj and Ibb were the worst offending regions in the public money cases.

CA chairman: Blacklist for violators of customs law due to be issued soon

SANA’A- March 07 (Saba)- Chairman of the Customs Authority (CA) Ali al-Zabidi has revealed that the authority is preparing a blacklist for traders who breach customs law.

In an interview with Saba, al-Zabidi said that solutions to tackle issues of customs need safe measures and care for employee of the authority.

Saba: what are the key reforms taken in Customs Authority during two years ago?

Al-Zabidi: The reforms focused on two domains, one on legislation and the second on administration. The authority worked to review laws associated with customs tariff and correct some customs measures.

Regarding the administrative reforms, the authority has conducted a study over
restructuring the authority, held several training courses for employees, appointed skilled personnel and rehabilitated certain customs outlets in some regions like in Mukalla, and Taiz airport as well as set up new customs centers after agreement with neighboring countries within joint cooperation.

The authority also has supplied these centers with up-to-date customs systems. (Read on …)

Update:

Through looking at the other side of the corruption cycle, the different levels of governance have varying degrees of involvement in corruption, ranging from the baselines to middle and high-level officials. However, the recent formation of the Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption has raised hopes in the sincerity of government’s efforts towards enhancing transparency and battling corruption.

However, spectators indicate that the anti-corruption commission will have limited success in any anti-corruption reforms, quoting that the commission has distributed over 3000 applications for the disclosure of net wealth to high ranking government officials, while less than 300 officials cooperated with the commission and disclosed their net worth. Challengingly, a source who requested to remain anonymous indicated that the president himself refused a request from the commission to take the lead and disclose his own net worth in order to influence other officials, but the presidential office turned that request down.

It is obvious that the anti-corruption commission will be facing a serious challenge if it is to succeed in its anti-corruption mission; however, the hope relies within the support of the international community and donor organizations such as the World Bank and USAID.

Original Post: The article doesnt mention how many declaration forms were sent out, I think its around 2000. Its a good system. As with everything else, the key will be enforcement. Publishing the names in the newspaper is not enforcement; legal action is. The state cannot be above the law, but it is.

al-Motamar

Almotamar.net – The Supreme National Anti-Corruption Authority (SNACA) in Yemen has on Wednesday threatened to refer all those who are lagging behind in delivering their financial declarations to prosecution to be accounted on heir properties and to be tried on charges of corruption cases in case they did not deliver those declarations as soon as possible.

Head of financial declaration sector at the SNACA Mohammed al-Matari told almotamar.net that the authority would in the next three weeks prepare statements of the names of those who failed to present their financial declarations and sending them to prosecution and trial.

The SNACA has earlier defined a date for all those involves in financial declarations in 60 days from receiving the form but many of those included have delayed in committing to that and that impedes the authority work. Al-Matari said the number of those who delivered their financial declarations from ministers, directors general and government officials is so far 592 persons, indicating to almotamar.net that all the ministers have handed over their declarations while many of directors general still have not delivered their declarations.

This measure comes at a time the authority has revealed that of investigations carried out by officials at the authority in 54 cases of corruption.

Another hugely corrupt deal. Privatization is an important process for economic growth. It hasn’t gone very well at all. However, this report is very good actually in that the Parliament is investigating corruption and the media is reporting it. That’s the way it is supposed to work. Corruption is countered by transparency and accountability.

On this specific issue, the Ministry of Agriculture is an obstacle to the implementation of the water strategy, with about 90% of water used for agriculture and the vast bulk of that used in qat production. The ministries are not coordinating; some are profit centers for associated individuals while others are pushing to sustain Yemen’s viability into the future. Another example is the Health Ministry whose employees own many of the shops that sell the smuggled pharmaceuticals.

Yemen Post

A report by Agriculture, Irrigation and Fish Wealth Committee at Parliament revealed gross violations by the Supreme Committee for Privatization while selling the General Corporation for increasing genetically improved seeds as the real value was estimated at YR 1.8 billion while it was sold for YR 78.5 million with a difference of YR 1.3 billion.

The report demanded the Public Money Prosecution to act against some Ministry of Agriculture affiliates and Hadramout Deputy Governor for Wadi and Desert Affairs under corruption charges.

The corporation which was established in 1998 as a public company at a capital of YR 75 million and stretches over 6303 m2 was sold to Yemeni businessman Mohammed Al-Hadad.

In 2005, Hathramout members of parliament submitted a complaint to parliament demanding restoration of the corporation and abrogation of the selling operation; however, no action has been taken since then.

Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation is one of the ministries famous for rampant corruption especially in the Provinces Development Authority as is the case with Eastern Provinces Development Authority whose officials were accused of plundering YR 400 million together with $ 20 million under Desertification Fighting Program.

The officials of the authority now own villas and real estates in Sana’a whose total value reaches millions of dollars.

More from the Yemen Observer

The committee for agriculture, irrigation and fisheries in the Parliament has discovered a corrupt deal worth YR1,800,000,000 involving the General Company for Seed Production in Sayoun. (Read on …)

Yemen Observer

The Primary Court and Prosecution of Public Money announced their judgment in case number 37 of 2003 concerning the embezzlement of money from the Airplane Fueling Administration, an affiliate of the Yemen Petroleum Company, at Sana’a airport. The case was presided over by Judge Abdulrazaq Saeed al-Akohaly and attended by Public Money Prosecutor Ramzi Abdullah al-Shawafi. The first defendant received three years imprisonment and a $360,229 fine. The second defendant will serve two years imprisonment and receive a fine of $110,016. Four of the other suspects were acquitted, while the seventh suspect’s case was closed due to his death.

The total amount which is to be refunded to the public treasury amounted to $479,312, the equivalent of YR49,062,000.

The indictment statement in the Sana’a airplane fueling case cited the embezzled amount at more than $650,000 over a period of ten years. The accused had forged official documents, whose damage was estimated to exceed $130 million.

The court then continued looking into another seven cases. One of these is the case of the forgery of official documents, employment decisions and preparation of fraudulent payroll lists for more than 1,419 persons who were said to have been employed at the Al-Jof health office in 2002, where the accused seized YR 20,142,573 in public funds.

During the session, Judge al-Akhali ordered the public money prosecution to bring the original documents before the second court session in order to determine the liability of each of the suspects, and to submit the documents to the criminal laboratory for analysis of the forged signatures.

The court ordered one of the Ministry of Finance’s deputy ministers to stand before the court, to answer why he had stalled in sending the official documents which the court demanded in order to present them to the accused.

Judge Ali al-Omisi, a member of the Public Money Court, headed a session trying 12 different cases, including one concerned with the issuing of 4 uncovered cheques to the tax department and another for the Ahli bank. There are 4 additional cases of people evading paying zakat.

Customs Authority: Customs exemptions should be abandoned

SANA’A, Feb. 08 (Saba)- Chairman of Customs Authority Ali al-Zabidi has stated that customs exemptions constitute a focus for corruption and, therefore, should be abandoned for this leads to misuse of tax and customs fees.

“I have called for the cancellation of customs exemptions since shouldering responsibility of the Customs Authority as I know the negative impacts and gross financial losses laid on the state treasury,” al-Zabidi said.

He pointed out to Saba that the total customs exemptions the authority granted in 2007 reached around YR 33.3 billion, out of which YR 4 billion under temporary permission system.

Al-Zabidi noted the importance of customs and tax revenues in supporting state treasury, specially under the decline of oil revenues on which state budget mostly depends.

Ministers with good ideas are frequently undermined by others in the administration.

Its really very good.

A 400,000 fine for 600,000 embezzlement and 130 million damages.

Yemen Observer:
The Primary Court and Prosecution of Public Money announced their judgment in case number 37 of 2003 concerning the embezzlement of money from the Airplane Fueling Administration, an affiliate of the Yemen Petroleum Company, at Sana’a airport. The case was presided over by Judge Abdulrazaq Saeed al-Akohaly and attended by Public Money Prosecutor Ramzi Abdullah al-Shawafi. The first defendant received three years imprisonment and a $360,229 fine. The second defendant will serve two years imprisonment and receive a fine of $110,016. Four of the other suspects were acquitted, while the seventh suspect’s case was closed due to his death.

The total amount which is to be refunded to the public treasury amounted to $479,312, the equivalent of YR49,062,000.

The indictment statement in the Sana’a airplane fueling case cited the embezzled amount at more than $650,000 over a period of ten years. The accused had forged official documents, whose damage was estimated to exceed $130 million.

The court then continued looking into another seven cases. One of these is the case of the forgery of official documents, employment decisions and preparation of fraudulent payroll lists for more than 1,419 persons who were said to have been employed at the Al-Jof health office in 2002, where the accused seized YR 20,142,573 in public funds. (Read on …)

Apparently Al-Sahwa accused the regime of re-selling gas donated by Saudi Arabia for the local Yemeni market.

almotamar.net – A source at the office of the prime minister condemned Thursday the series of lies published by the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) newspapers the latest of which fabrications reported Thursday by A-Sahwa newspaper on the government’s sides to sell quantities of gas offered by Saudi Arabia to support the Yemeni government’s efforts in enhancing the gas situation allover the county.

The source expressed his denunciation of such allegations of this newspaper or other papers and media of the JMP and their always lies against the government and the measures it takes for overcoming the economic challenges resulting from the state of instability in world markets of many basic commodities related to the living of the people and alleviation of their suffering.

The source affirmed that the government has the ability to stock and market quantities of gas offered by the Saudi brothers for meeting local needs of gas. He described the newspaper’s reports as mere lies. The source also expressed his denunciation of the lies that have become a state associated to statements of the JMP’ and his media and leaderships.

ah, here we go, from Al-Sahwa

January 17, 2008- Well-informed sources affirmed to Alsahwa.net that officials seeks to buy gas aid granted by Saudi to Yemen.

The sources affirmed that 3,000 out of 30,000 tons of Saudi gas had arrived to Aden port last Friday.

On the other hand, Sources affirmed that Yemen Gas Company allowed to Gas shops owners to buy a gas cylinder for more than its real price, YR 500.

Gas shops owners had threaten to strike if a percentage of prices is not allocated to them, so the government let them add new increase.

Its a very good law in theory, putting it into practice is facing some difficulty; however a benchmark is always a good thing.

Yemeni minister refuses to submit financial disclosure to SNACC

[16 January 2008]
SANA’A, (Saba)- A member of Supreme National Authority for Compacting Corruption (SNACC), the head of Financial Disclosure Sector Mohammad al-Matari said on Wednesday that SNACC has received 262 disclosures of Yemeni officials.

Al-Matari clarified that one minister has not submitted his financial disclosure till now although he received a formal apply from the authority.

Al- Matari pointed out that Defense Ministry is the 1st official body that submitted more financial disclosures of its personal to SNACC.

Al-Matari re-called all ministry deputies and assistants and general managers in all governmental bodies to submit quickly their financial disclosures according law No. 30 for the year 2006.

He also called the ministries had not submitted lists of the names of their employees included on the low to complete the legal procedures for enabling the authority to receive the 2nd stage of
the financial disclosures.

The law compels everyone of the governmental high-rank employees to submit their financial disclosures over their possessions, their wives’ and sons’ in the country orr abroad to the SNACC that will inspect and follow up these disclosures.Saba

That is their job, bringing transparency and accountability to public officials, a fundamental component of democracy. al-Sahwa:

January 7, 2008 – Alliance of Anti-corruption journalists has approved a schedule of its activities for 2008 which will start with launching its electronic website, www.yemenjac.net, according to a statement of the alliance.

The alliance will monitor and release all corruption cases and complains published in papers and websites after making sure of its truth.

In a statement, the alliance explained that it would begin papering it’s the first annual report regarding corruption cases mentioned in Yemeni press of 2007.

The alliance elected the former chairman of the Yemeni Journalist Association Abdul-Bari Taher as a spokesman.

almotamar.net – A presidential decree issued Monday on establishment of a Higher Committee for Tenders and Biddings.

The committee is composed of Mohammed Ahmed al-Junaid chairman and Fawzi Mujahid Abdulqader, Mahmoud Hussein al-Eryany and Mansour Saleh Mohammed Saleh al-Qaeti as members.

The decree stipulated that it is operative from the date of its issuance and publication in the official gazette.

almotamar.net, saba – In its meeting held on Sunday chaired by Premier Dr Ali Mohammed Mujawar , the cabinet ratified eight tenders for improving electricity estimated at YR 3 billion provided by government.

The tenders are about importing electronic equipment, motors, cables, wires and accessories to a number of projects in governorates of Mareb, Thamar and Sana’a.

The cabinet listened to a report of governor of Mareb over needs of the governorate and its districts of electricity and other projects in the light of the inclusive plan approved by the cabinet for boosting development process in Mareb governorate.

The cabinet directed speeding up accomplishing these projects and covering all areas of the governorate with electricity and completing road projects of Mareb-al-Beidha, Safer-Mareb, Safer-al-Noqob and others.

It urged all ministries to follow up implementing the cabinet’s previous decisions regarding Mareb development. The cabinet affirmed the role the local authority has to play to strengthen the process of projects implementation in all areas.

almotamar.net – Head of the Information office of the General People’s Congress (GPC) Tareq al-Shamy on Tuesday said the republican decision on establishment of the Higher Committee of Tenders and Biddings is an embodiment of seriousness of the state pursuit in the process of reforms and fighting corruption.

Al-Shamy said the decision on formation of the committee comes as part of reforms Yemen is witnessing. The reforms system has depended on clear vision concerning development of laws and adoption of transparency principle in all financial, economic and administrative dealings.

The GPC official added that this step comes to be complementary to what has been achieved in independence of judiciary, establishment of the Supreme National Anti-Corruption Authority and amendments of laws related to economic, financial, administrative and judicial measures.

He criticised the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) negative stand concerning the reforms achieved, considering those stands as indicating a wrong understanding of opposition in opposing everything away from the national feeling. He added that the reforms serve the society and homeland.

9 mil returned to the treasury

http://www.yobserver.com/local-news/10013429.html

“The Court of Public Money has retrieved $9,801,000 for the State Treasury from corruption cases in 2006 and 2007,” said Mr. Ali al-’Awash, the General Attorney of the Court of Public Money. The number of corruption cases addressed by the public money prosecution from the beginning of 2006 until the middle of 2007 amounted to 2,296.

There were 1,416 cases in 2006 in which the court was able to retrieve the amount of YR 1,279,063,382 as well as $1,023,400. The 880 cases that the court dealt with in the first half of 2007 retrieved an amount of YR 425,816,605, as well as $168,000. Mr. al-Awash said that although the courts dealing with the prosecution of public money were limited in terms of resources and money, they proved their effectiveness in contributing to the fight against corruption.

At a forum held last week in honor of the International Day of Fighting Corruption al-Awash said that the responsibility of fighting corruption requires a real and effective partnership and cooperation amongst all the parties concerned.

In the same way, the Head of the National Supreme Anti-Corruption Authority, Mr. Ahmed al-Anesi, said that the authority is studying several cases of corruption; administrative, fiscal and investigational, and when they reach verdicts these cases will be referred to the concerned sides and the individuals involved will be revealed.

News Yemen

Huge funds returned from corruption cases in 2006 and 2007
09/12/2007

SANA’A, NewsYemen

The National Supreme Anti-Corruption Authority (NSACA) and the legislative and executive authorities have agreed that billions of rials lost due to corruption in the last few years.

Celebrating the World Corruption Day, December 09, they have confirmed the need to combine efforts and ensure partnership between NSACA and eight government and private institutions that are concerned about
Corruption.

Head of NSACA, Ahmad al-Ansi said this day was a good occasion to bring partners in fighting corruption all together to discuss corruption as a public issue, not
the issue of a specific organization.

Al-Ansi called for activating the role of both legislative and executive authorities and developing the supervising bodies as well as society in general to eradicate corruption that damages national economy and hampers development.

We need to prevent corruption before happening, prevention is better than cure, said al-Ansi.

There were 1416 cases raised to the Public Funds Prosecution in 2006, said the lawyer at the Court of Public Funds Ali al-Awash.

Al-Awash said the court could restore over YR 1.279 billion and $1023400 to the Public Fund.

Early in 2007, the court looked at 88 cases of corruption and it could bring back more than YR 425 million and USD 168000, he added.

The head of High Judicial Council Esam al-Samawi said the council has tackled a number of corruption cases and that it has applied effective accountability and
extended inspection campaigns to protect the public funds.

We work together hand by hand with the National Supreme Anti-corruption Authority o fight this threat against our country so that Yemeni people can live
decent life, said deputy speaker of the Parliament Yahya al-Raee.

Head of the Central Organization for Controlling and Auditing (COCA) Abdullah al-Sanafi gave figures showing cases of corruption the COCA has found out in
the last two years.

On this occasion, the UNDP office in Sana’a has confirmed its readiness to help the judicial system and ministry of finance in Yemen prepare and manage transparent budgets in addition to building the capacities of civil society organizations.

Yemen Observer

The Public Funds Court, presided by Judge Abdul Razzaq al-Akehali, continued its examination of 16 different cases that ranged from embezzling and theft to usurpation, all of which involve the misuse of national public funds.

One of the adjourned cases has seen 22 employees from the Ministry of Health stand trial. The case concerned the quadruple cerebro-spinal fever vaccine case in which pilfered funds totaled YR129 million. Another case dealt with the aircraft fuel supply directorate at Sana’a Airport in which financial damages amounted to $613,126 in addition to an embezzled amount of YR2, 141,126. The case was adjourned to gather more evidence.

The same court postponed case No. 31/2005 that involved counterfeit official papers, appointment decrees and employment papers for 1,491 pseudo-employees at Al-Jawf Health Bureau in 2002. The 14 defendants had allegedly usurped the ‘imaginary’ employees’ salaries that added up to YR20, 172,573. The hearing was adjourned in order to collect payrolls bearing the defendants’ signatures.

Another adjourned case dealt with the repair and renovation of the Sam Al-Yemen ship. The Yemeni Economic Corporation (YEC), owner of the vessel, filed the case against the repairs contractor. The YEC’s loss amounted to $800,000. The case was deferred in order to collect further evidence.

Judge Ali al-Omaisi presided over another 12 embezzlement and usurpation cases including four for writing bad cheques addressed to the Tax Authority, two zakah evasions and various thefts in public departments.

In total, the court passed seven verdicts last week. Four cases were ruled to be referred to specialized courts, three others included embezzlements, the circulation of counterfeit money and the theft of public funds.

Yemen Observer

IBB – A number of candidates for jobs in the Ibb health bureau claim to have been blackmailed by officials after submitting their CV’s and other files for the purpose of employment.

The total number of the candidates to be taken on by the office this year is 239. They say they were asked to pay YR 5,000 for each file. The candidates complained about the blackmail to the governor of the province, Ali bin Ali al-Qaissi, last Monday 25th November. The governor has formed a committee to look into the accusations

The committee found officials guilty while they were receiving the files of the candidates last Monday. The committee also received hundreds of complaints from new job seekers against the office of the civil service in the governorate. They accused the civil service of tampering with their dossiers.

Wow. From Saada to Aden and lots of places in between

Yemen Times

TAIZ, Dec. 2 — Official and popular celebrations on the 40th anniversary of National Independence Day, which took place from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, were accompanied by angry and hostile demonstrations against the authority in several Yemeni governorates, notably in Taiz, which hosted the biggest rally. Aden, Lahj, Al-Dhale’, Abyan, Sana’a and Ibb were other governorates that witnessed enraged protests against the government.

Securities can’t prevent the marches

Security authorities failed to prevent citizens from joining the demonstrations, although they closed all outlets to Taiz and opened fire on some people while they were trying to enter the city via entrances other than those containing checkpoints. Three citizens were injured badly in the process. (Read on …)

almotamar.net – The number of Yemeni cabinet, misters who have so far delivered statements on their property to the Supreme National Anti-Corruption Authority (SNACA) has amounted to 24 ministers out of 94 government officials included by the law. Among the government officials are undersecretaries and directors general at different government institutions. Submissions of those statements began since the beginning of last October in implementation of the law requesting senior government officials to provide statements on their property which was adopted by the Yemeni parliament the mid of July 2006.

The head of the property statements at the SNACA Mohammed Hamoud al-Matari has made it clear to almotamar.net that the Minister of Electricity & Energy Dr Mustafa Bahran has presented to the SNACA his property statement on Tuesday and before him on the same day was the Minister of State for the cabinet and parliament affairs Dr Adnan al-Jifri.

This legal measure that includes the Yemeni ministers for the first time comes in implementation of the law on statement of property and articles of the president of the republic’s electoral platform with regard to fighting corruption and part of the reforms aimed to improve the administrative performance and combating corruption in Yemen.

The law obliges those included to present statements on their property before their assuming of their posts so that the SNACA would be able to hold them accountable after that for any sums of money or property they have acquired during their posts in illegal ways.

Shocker!

Al-Sahwa

November 20, 2007 -The Central Organization for Control and Auditing has referred in the end of October some officials in Haja province to the general prosecution in order to investigate them in the wake of issuing accusations against them by the local authorities.

The head of COCA revealed corruption cases and financial breaches totaled YR 34 million in 2003.

It explained that the officials are involved in seizing of public money, counterfeiting formal documents and other financial and administrative breaches.

COCA asked in its document to the Attorney-General to hold all the involved officials accountable.

ah, the Interior Minister

YO:
Parliament has summoned the government for questioning, demanding them to carry out its recommendations or resign if it didn’t implement its recommendations concerning the 2005 budget.

During the Nov 7 session, many MPs suggested giving the government one month or two months to rectify financial irregularities put the perpetrators on trial, or face a vote of no confidence.

“We spent around YR40 million preparing this report on the 2005 budget. If the government will not carry these recommendations, that is giving carte blanche to corruption,” said Abdul-Aziz Gobari, MP.

“The government must implement our recommendations during the next two months or a new government must be formed, as would happen in other countries,” Gobari said.

“Every minister must form a committee in his ministry in light of the report of parliament to check for financial violations in economic units and funds under the ministry.

Then those ministries must bring violators to trial within two months,” said Mohammed al-Qadhi, MP

“The special funds have proved a complete failure. The Drugs Fund has left 75 percent of its budget unspent while all hospitals are suffering from a shortage of medicine,” Abdullah Ba-Mo’ili, MP said.

Ba-Mo’ili said that the Roads and Bridges Fund was the worst. In one year, there have been more than 60.000 accident in highways which resulted in 75.000 injured citizens. He added that in his opinion, the funds must have been embezzled.

Parliament has discovered the embezzlement of over YR4 billion in current expenditures in the government’s budget. This was stated in a report issued by the Special Parliamentary Committee and the Central Organization for Control and Auditing, who were charged with reviewing the accounts. Violations were found in particular in the independent and supplementary budgets for special funds in 2005.

The report confirmed that those bodies did not implement the repeated recommendations of Parliament to reduce expenditure. This corruption shows how the government estimated its budget figures incorrectly when it prepared both independent and supplementary budgets.

In terms of cash expenditures, the report showed that local authorities are not able to exploit budgets, but that leaders of local authorities are keen to abuse current expenditures. The committee also noted that these authorities have not been able to increase their revenues. This reflects a lack of coordination in revenue collection.

In terms of special funds, the report revealed that the aggregate of abused resources in 23 funds exceeded YR22 billion, which constitutes some 23 percent of the total budget (YR71 billion).

Corruption occurred in the Fund for Maintenance of Roads and Bridges, the Social Fund for Development, the Military Fund, and the Retirement Fund, all of which are under the control of the Interior Ministry. Also included in this list were the funds for Caring and Rehabilitation of Handicapped People and the fund for Encouraging Agricultural and Fish Production.

The report noted that some local authoritiesí incomes had increased due to their investments in treasury bills and bank deposits. The report revealed that this increase of capital income is not a result of better performance by those authorities, but of rising interest on treasury bills, as well as an increase in currency interest rates during 2005.

Local authorities spend money freely because of their financial independence. There are no regulations governing the allocation of funds in expenses, wages or bonuses. The report suggested that a policy to rationalize expenditure should be enacted to prevent further embezzlement of public funds.

Yemen Observer

Al-Anesi, the NSACA chairman, said that reacting in this way was beneath the dignity of the Electricity minister. “We sent a letter to the Cabinet telling them not to commit the country to anything in advance and we are not accusing Bahran of anything,” said al-Anesi. “The NSACA, like everybody else, read what was written in the papers about the deal and it attracted our attention. We called the stock market in the United States and asked for information on Powered Corp. and found that the company has never carried out any business in the field of building nuclear plants and its capital is only $500,000. The deal was supposed to be worth $15 billion,” he said.

According to al-Anesi, all of this information was sent to the Cabinet, which decided to cancel any deals with Powered Corp. He added that it was not in the best interest of the Minister of Electricity to further discuss the issue, as neither his post nor his name were mentioned to the Cabinet.

Yemen Observer

Parliament has revealed the embezzlement of over YR4 billion in current expenditures in the government’s budget. This was stated in a report issued by the Special Parliamentary Committee and the Central Organization for Control and Auditing, who were charged with reviewing the accounts. The violations were specifically found in the independent and supplemental budgets of special funds in 2005.

The report confirmed that those bodies did not institute the repeated recommendations of Parliament to reduce expenditure. This corruption demonstrates how the government incorrectly estimated its budget figures when it prepared both independent and supplementary budgets.

In terms of cash expenditures, the report indicated that the authorities are not able to exploit budgets, but that leaders of the authorities are keen to abuse current expenditures. The Committee also noted that these authorities have not been able to increase their revenues. This reflects a lack of coherence in revenue collection.

In terms of special funds, the report revealed that the aggregate of abused resources in 23 funds exceeded YR22 billion. This constitutes some 23 percent of the total budget funds (YR71 billion). (Read on …)