Armies of Liberation

In order to restructure the military, the transitional govt needs to know what exists and where; a US congressional report in 2009ish found that the Yemeni CT forces and military could not account for or locate some equipment granted as US military assistance. Furthermore, direct and brokered Yemeni arms purchases are sometimes sold in bulk to the black market, and individual soldiers (who sometimes aren’t paid for months) have been known to sell their weapons.

In reality, all ministries and government offices should be subject to an inventory (including cars). However, considering the gargantuan levels of corruption and mismanagement at all levels, a secondary audit is imperative. Asking the people responsible for the embezzlement to count the inventory is a recipe for more subterfuge.

A secondary audit of the inventory would be a good job for the revolutionaries, many of whom have accounting and computer degrees. As outsiders they would be independent, and its a good method to enfranchise them in the transition process while generating trust through transparency. International assistance by experienced accountants of the process may also increase the Yemeni auditors skill levels and employ-ability. Of course the US will be embarrassed by how much of its intended CT aid was stolen, diverted and/or resold, but sunlight is good for everybody.

Its very important however to standardized the inventory process regionally and from ministry to ministry–from the beginning. Starting with compatible processes, methods, computer systems and software is essential. For example, Yemen’s years long difficulty in generating stats and paperwork on the Somali refugees arises in large part from technical obstacles generated by using different accounting methods, incompatible databases and different computer systems, both vertically and horizontally. This impending pitfall is easily overcome with a little forethought at this point.

al Sahwa, President directs to count properties of military

Alsahwah.net- Yemen President Abdu-Rabo Mansour Hadi has directed on Wednesday the Defense Ministry to form technical committees to count the properties of the army in a move that precede the reconstruction of the military and end the division.

Meanwhile, the government tasked the Oil and Mineral Minister, Hisham Sharaf, to appoint a new director-general of the Oil Petroleum Company after the resignation of the former director in response to waves of protests by the employees of the company.

According to the Yemeni News Agency, Saba, military commanders held on Wednesday a meeting presided by the Defense Minister Ahmed Nasser Ahmed. The meeting discussed the counting of the military’s properties and how to halt the squandering of the public resources.

Also see “Fixing Broken Windows”: Security Sector Reform in Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen Carnegie 2009

Where is the actual budget break down posted? These numbers are meaningless. The new law of the land in Yemen (the GCC document) guarantees fiscal transparency, and anti-corruption measures are one important demand of the people. Normally there is an end of the year supplemental that increases spending by about 25%.

Bloomberg: Yemen’s government plans to spend 2,111 billion rials ($9.8 billion) this year, according to draft budget plans reported by state-run news agency Saba. The draft expenditure, which requires the approval of parliament in Sana’a, represents a 17 percent increase over the 2011 budget that was approved Dec. 5, 2010. Yemen has been using last year’s budget for the first quarter of this year as unrest forced President Ali Abdullah Saleh from office last month and repeated clashes undermined business activity.

Government recognizes the state budget for fiscal year 2012 by 2 trillion and 672 billion and 740 million rials
[06 / March / 2012]

Sana’a (Saba) -

Council of Ministers approved in its weekly meeting today, chaired by Council President Brother Mohammed Salem Basendwah the draft state budget for fiscal year 2012, and projects of independent and attached budgets and special funds budgets and the economic sector and laws linked to .. And the allocation to the House of Representatives to complete the necessary constitutional procedures.

The Council instructed the Minister of Legal Affairs and Minister of State for the House of Representatives and the Shura Council in coordination with the Minister of Finance to follow up those actions.

The estimated resources of the state budget at both central and local levels for the current year 2012, the amount of two trillion and 111 billion and 129 000 453 thousand, from various sources or resource for linking resources to the last year of $ trillion and 519 billion and 589 thousand, and an increase of 9.38 percent.

The estimated use for 2012, the amount of two trillion and 672 billion and 740 000 773 thousand, distributed at the gates of various budget, compared to connect to the year 2011 of $ trillion and 835 billion and 956 million riyals, an increase of 6.45 percent. (Read on …)

In the first half of the story, South Korea was paying well under fair market price since 2005 despite opposition and activists strenuous objections.

Yemen LNG and Total Gas LIFT gas shipments redirected to Korea
[18 / February / 2012] Saba

Agreed Yemen LNG, Total Gas & Power to increase the number of shipments transferred by 20 shipments per year to Korea during the years 2012.2013 and 2014 m due to the continued low gas prices in the U.S. market.

Under the new agreement which was signed in Paris on the fourteenth of February, the ongoing presence of the Minister of Oil and Minerals Engineer Hisham Sharaf Abdullah, will be selling LNG to Kogas, according to the current price of the market. (Read on …)

Everybody is wondering where the new arms shipment came from; if missiles, I was thinking North Korea; otherwise eastern Europe. Most Yemenis think Saudi Arabia, probably the only country willing to extend credit to the Sanaa regime at the moment. (But then with the earlier infusion of funds from Gadaffi, maybe Saleh can handle COD.)

9/23/11 HRF: Cables released by Wikileaks reveal that Slobodan Tesic, a Serbian arms dealer, contracted in 2009 to sell $95 million worth of sniper rifles, antiaircraft guns, and other arms and ammunition to the Yemen Ministry of Defense. As scores of unarmed protestors continue to be killed by the Yemeni government in renewed violence this week, possibly by these same weapons, Human Rights First renews its call for the United States to actively pressure the networks that enable brutal violence against civilians and grave human rights abuses. (Read on …)

The pillaging of the economy continues:

From Chatham House, the full ( PDF report is here):
The recent political crisis in Yemen has created a cycle of hyperinflation, currency depreciation and disruption to the supply of basic goods. This is already having a serious impact on the 10.3 million Yemenis living in poverty, with the prospect of worse conditions to come.

Yemen’s economy is in thrall to a complex, intertwined network of elites that control the oil industry, imports, processing, and packaging and distribution of goods. Many members of these elite groups are key actors in the current crisis. (Read on …)

IDP’s in Yemen exceed a half million: 300K Saada, 100K Abyan, 200K (at least) Somalis; one doctor per 100K in some areas, one third of children malnourished, education on hold, humanitarian access denied and the whole UN relief project is underfunded by 40%:

Raxanreeb: U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said millions of people in Yemen face “a daily struggle for survival” due to conflict, poverty, drought, soaring food prices and collapsing state services. (Read on …)

CH: Anti-government protests in Yemen are complicating Nexen’s efforts to renew its licence for the country’s Masila oilfield.

Nexen may lose its licence for Yemen’s Masila oilfield to a local operator, officials in Yemen said, as the Canadian company’s efforts to renew the deal are hindered by political turmoil and the government’s urgent need for cash. (Read on …)

WB Suspends $542 Million to Instable Yemen Yemen Post:

The World Bank suspended hundreds of millions of USD in aid to Yemen as from July 28 due to the political and security situation as the dueling protests and associated severe crises continue across the republic.

Independent sources cited a WB statement as saying that the decision came in harmony with the Bank’s rules that call for such a procedure in complicated circumstances to avoid negative impacts on its programme course in any country.

The Bank is sponsoring 21 projects in Yemen with $882 million, $542 million out of which has not been released yet, the source reported, citing the statement as saying that the Bank will be ready to resume its activities normally in the country when the situation returns normal.

Yemen Post: Republican guards killed a 14-year old boy in Yemen’s Taiz province on Wednesday, where a massive demonstration was held coinciding with protests in other cities to urge the youth-led protesters to finish their revolution and to refuse external mandate or interventions.

Locals at Street 60th at the city’s entrance said republican guards fired at passengers inside a bus killing the teen and injuring others. The incident took place amid insecurity in Taiz, which saw deadly clashes between the army and armed tribesmen in the past weeks.

In other Taiz related news, Haykel Saed Corp is negotiating between the families of the protesters killed by forces under the supervision of lunatic security chief (transferred from Aden after several bloodbaths) Abdullah Qiran. There’s no resolution yet as the families are demanding a trial. Qiran was also charged with the murder of Ahmed Darwish tortured to death in Aden jail. One major outstanding protesters’ demand is the purge and reformation of the security forces.

There are many ways to skin a cat apparently. In 2010, South Africa sold about R 8.3 million or over 1 million dollars in weapons to Yemen. However no Ratel armored vehicles were sold. Ratel vehicles shown in Yemen in pictures by Reuters show the pro-change or defected military in possession of them currently. The armored carriers were likely shipped to Yemen in violation of their end use certificates. They appear to be converted versions of the South African Ratel carrier produced in Jordan by the Paramount Group, in co-operation with the King Abdullah Design and Development Bureau (KADDB). Additionally, Saleh opened his own bullet and tank factories in the last few years.

CAPE TOWN — South African- manufactured Ratel armoured infantry carriers have been photographed in strife-torn Yemen, leading the Democratic Alliance (DA) to call for an investigation by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC).

The Ratels were apparently being operated in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, by soldiers who had defected to protesters demanding the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule.

The presence of the vehicles either means SA authorised their export or that another country sold Ratels to Yemen, which would constitution a violation of the end- user certificate. (Read on …)

Safer was established as a state corporation after the Yemeni government threw out Hunt Oil. Safer has been a center of mass corruption since then. By dissolving Safer and establishing a new National Petroleum Company, the state is destroying the records proving corruption, embezzlement and smuggling. Next it will be the Fisheries and the Military Economic Corp. (which is known as the Economic Corp now). This can’t go unchallenged. No documents means no trial.

SABA

aretaker Govt transmits bill of National Petroleum Co. to Parliament
[29 / March 2011]

SANA’A, March 29 (Saba) – The cabinet of the caretaker government referred on Tuesday a bill of the National Petroleum Company to Parliament for discussion and completion of constitutional procedures for the issuance of the law.

The bill, reviewed by a ministerial committee, consists of 32 articles divided into six chapters, including naming, definitions, the establishment of the National Petroleum Company and determining its functions, powers, capital, resources and board of directors, the advantages and exemptions and the final provisions.

The bill stipulated the creation of a national petroleum company to replace the current SAFER E & P Operations Company. The new company has a legal personality with financial and administrative independence and is subjected to the supervision and control of Minister of Oil and Minerals.

Yemen Post

Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi has urged donors to pump $ 6 billion in aid to Yemen over the next five years to help it meet the demands of the anti-government protesters and sit-inners. (Read on …)

Al Shameri is a very interesting guy, close to Ali Mohsen al Ahmar, with a lot of connections to disparate groups. Supposedly al Shamari was carrying a half million dollars to dole it out to Yemeni students in Egypt but that’s unbelievable.

New Age: Yemen’s ambassador to Egypt was robbed by gunmen, who stole about 594,000 dollars in cash, security sources told the German Press Agency dpa on Wednesday. (Read on …)

The desperate scrambling of a desperate man. Tactics that worked before won’t again:

Saleh directs Govt to expand social security network [31/1/2011

SANA’A, Jan.31(Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh directed the government on Monday to expand the network of social security by adopting 0.5 million cases of families in need in light of the results of the field survey carried out by the concerned body. (Read on …)

Riyadh police round up 109 in clampdown on beggary
ARAB NEWS: Jan 21, 2011, RIYADH: Riyadh police rounded up 109 beggars in the capital city during the past week as part of an intensive campaign against beggary, authorities announced on Friday. A police official said most of those caught were foreign nationals….A survey conducted by UNICEF in 2007 found that up to half of child beggars in the Kingdom entered the country with their parents.

It is reported that Saudi authorities arrest each month around 3,500 Yemeni children who are smuggled into the country to work or beg.

Its like watching a slow motion car crash and everyone is shouting, turn the wheel.

Yemen’s Economy to Collapse within Two Years – Gulf Official Warns
Yemen Post Staff

Yemen’s economy is expected to collapse within two years in case the inflation and job rates continue to increase amid a sharp decline in oil production whose revenues bring in about two thirds of the country’s income, a Gulf official has warned.

Abdul Aziz al Owaishiq, Director of the Economic Integration Department at the Gulf Cooperation Council, was quoted by Al-Hayat Newspaper as saying in a lecture in Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday that the GCC and donor annual aid to Yemen, about $ 1.2 billion, is now frozen because of the ‘administrative inefficiency and weaknesses’. (Read on …)

Several years ago the Central Bank began stamping the bills as counterfeit to prevent General Ali Mohsen from putting them back in circulation, as told by a bank employees present at the time. As often occurs, the counterfeiting rings are often simultaneously engaged in other criminal activity such as drug smuggling etc.

Counterfeit Saudi riyals sees upsurge in Yemen, ARAB NEWS Published: Jan 5, 2011

SANAA: Yemen has seen a recent upsurge in the number of currency counterfeit crimes and police reports show that the scale of the problem in the country is grave. A day hardly goes by without a new case involving fake currencies being disclosed. (Read on …)

Below an additional report on banking in Yemen which notes only two per cent of the population has bank accounts. Bloomberg

Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, plans to sell $500 million of local currency Islamic bonds for the first time to fund the budget deficit and spur the Shariah-compliant finance industry.
(Read on …)

Yemen Post: Late last year, I met with the Minister of Water and he clearly said that it is impossible to end qat plantation in Yemen. He himself is known to have massive qat farms in Ibb region, while he admits that he would not stop qat plantation in his farms until the government gives him other options. The minister is saying that he wants options from the government in order to stop qat plantation, as if he is not in the government and responsible for this tragic file. He forgets that it is his duty to save Yemen from water depletion.

Yemen Chewers Spend $ 7 Million on Khat a Day: Yemeni people spend about $ 7 million a day on khat, a stimulus tree chewed by 75 per cent of males, compared to 33 per cent of women, an official has said.
(Read on …)

In plea documents, LatiNode admitted that from about March 2004 through June 2007, it paid $1.1 million to third parties, knowing that some or all of those funds would be passed on as bribes to officials of Hondutel. In addition, from about July 2005 to April 2006, the court records show LatiNode paid $1.2 million to a third-party consultant, knowing some or all of the money would be passed on to Yemeni officials in exchange for favorable interconnection rates in Yemen: Miami Herald