Armies of Liberation

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 …)

Late every year the Yemeni government submits an emergency supplemental to the budget that adds about a third more spending onto the original budget. The supplemental is even more vague than the original. Today we learn that 66 gov’t institutions never submitted their year end statements for 2009 including the YEC which buys and sells hundreds of millions for the state annually. It used to be the Economic Military Corp., but it branched out into a variety of other commodities including wheat, thus the name change. One time Burns said that everyone says to increase humanitarian aid, but no one says how. And its a good question in light of the rampant corruption and the elite’s seizure of donor funds.

al Sahwa- Yemen’s Parliament formed on Saturday a committee to investigate what is alleged about the government’s disregarding of closing accounts for dozens of corporations and funds in budget of the 2009 fiscal year.

MP Akram Atia revealed that over 66 government corporations such as the Yemeni Economic Corporation and the Yemenia Airway have not offered their closing accounts of 2009 fiscal year, affirming that the government’s closing statement contained a significant lack of data for dozens of economic units and their economic calculations. He also said that this omission is annually repeated by the parliament as dozens of government corporations do not end its closing accounts and that is disrgarded in the government’s closing statements.

An in depth profile of Yemen’s ambassador to the US at Time today fails to note that Abdulwahab Abdulla Al-Hajjri is President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s brother-in-law.

Time: The reason his bosses have kept him there so long, he says, is that “they think it’s an investment, because they think you develop experience and an understanding of how the system works.” Yemen’s ambassador to the UN is also a relative of the president.

In Yemen, the concentration of power in the hands of Saleh’s family goes beyond their control of the instruments of force (military and security forces) and extends to the national economy. The NYT noticed recently that many of President Saleh’s relatives are top security commanders.

(Presidential son) Ahmed Saleh is head of the Yemen Republican Guard and the country’s special forces. The president’s nephews — sons of his late brother — include Amar, the deputy director for national security; Yahye, head of the central security forces and the counterterrorism unit; and Tarek, head of the Presidential Guard. The president’s half brother is head of the air force.

As the following listing I compiled in 2006 demonstrates, Saleh’s relatives also control a large segment of the Yemeni economy in addition to their duties as military leaders. They also “own” much of the land. One trigger for instability in Southern Yemen is widespread land theft by the ruling family. The corporations listed below are huge monopolies in various business sectors.

President Saleh’s Relatives’ Economic Interests

Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, Special Forces and Republican Guards Commander, Eldest Son, Al-Haj Company For Heavy Equipments and Cars

Ali Abdullah Saleh, President, Partner of Tawfick Abul-Raheem, Sole Distributor of Gas and Petroleum Products

Ali Mohsen Al-Hamar Military Commander Northern and Western regions, Hawan For Petroleum Services and Alraida Group for Engineering.

Khalid Alarhabi Deputy Chief of The Presidential Palaces, Son in-law ,Yemen Space Company

Mohamed Saleh Al-Hamar, Air Force Commander, Half Brother, Alhashidi Petroleum Company

Yahya Mohamed Abdullah Saleh Commander Of Security Central Forces, Nephew, Al Mas Company For Petroleum Services and Ha Wi Cable Chinese Company
(Read on …)

Who owns the ECY? No one is sure. The ECY used to be the EMC, tasked with military procurement, and it expanded into other fields. There’s no oversight on its practices or review of its balance sheets. Yemen Herald

SANAA, 25 Oct — In a stormy session, members of parliament Sunday demanded clarification on the ownership of the Economic Corporation of Yemen (ECY), and called for investigation into claims of corruption committed by the corporation. The members refused to vote for a $21.0 million dollar loan for ECY and Trade Minister, Yahya al-Mutawakil told the assembly “the ECY is not part of my ministry and not subject to our supervision,” adding “we have our own reservations about its management and the parliament has the right to hold violators accountable.” (Read on …)

sounds like the fisheries

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In addition to the kidnapping cases, the Parliament also formed a committee of MPs Mohammed al-Khadim al-Wjih, Mohammed al-Hawri, Abdullah al-Maktari Ali al- Amrani, Abdulrazaq a-Hajari, Nasser Arman,

and Fuad Abdl-Karim to investigate the Yemeni Economic Establishment accounts and report on them to the Parliament.

Prime Minister Dr. Ali Mujawar explained that the Establishment is an affiliate of the Ministry of Defense because the Ministry owns 75 percent of its capital whereas the other 25 percent is owned by the interior ministry.

The Establishment’s capital was YR4 million at its conception, but has now been raised to YR10 billion. Profits in 2005 were YR157 million and rose to YR191 million the next year, according to final accounts. The Establishment employs nearly five thousand people, in addition to providing annual job opportunities for 1500-2000 temporary employees.

Under particular investigation by the committee is the use of the Establishment’s poultry and slaughterhouses. The Prime Minister stated that he should not be asked about the slaughterhouses because such issues do not concern the PM, and are under other Ministries’ responsibility.

Committee member al-Hajari responded by saying that he had practiced his constitutional rights because he did not know to which authority the Establishment was linked, so he had to direct his summons to the Prime Minister. He inquired into the Establishment’s financial practices when, in 2005 it had YR10 billion in capital, while gathering such low profits despite its commercial activities which included trading in textiles, meat, oxygen and companies.

The Establishment’s manager answered, saying that the Yemen Economic Establishment is a service and not for profit. He explained that the companies which were annexed to it were bankrupted and were under liquidation, assuring that their profit was not zero in 2005 and confirming that the final accounts are accessible.

Al-Sahwa

November 20, 2007 -The National Organization for Human Rights and Freedoms (HOOD) revealed 5 detainees in a private prison in the Yemen Economic Corporation, Some of them are imprisoned 7 months ago.

HOOD demanded to release Yasser al-Idrisi , who is imprisoned in a private jail in YEC since April 14 , 2007 ,despite the prosecution’s orders for releasing him .

However, the prosecution ordered YEC to immediately take the prisoner with his documents to the appeal court in Sana’a.

HOOD’s team which could reach to YEC explained that there are 5 prisoners in a cell inside YEC’s building.

The prisoners said to HOOD’s team that the number of prisoners totals some times 15 ,confirming that some prisoners are subjected to beatings as what happened to Jamil al-Raimi who was beaten before the YEC’ officials who attended his investigation.

They also cited that a child aged 12 was detained as a hostage fort two days, until his father was brought.

Subsidies looming

SANA’A, Aug. 25 — Deputy director of the capital secretariat chamber of commerce Mohammed Sallah has warned the Yemeni government of the consequences of subsidizing wheat and flour. He stated that the retail prices of wheat and flour at the government’s outlets are around 350 Riyals below cost, he also added that the government should first make a careful study of the consequences of such interference in the market.

Sallah also stated that while the notion of reducing the prices of wheat and flour for Yemeni consumers is a honorable one, but doing as such without studying the consequences will have dire effects on the economy and the government’s budget. He quoted from previous experiences that showed how the government’s eventual removal of such subsidies had disastrous effects. (Read on …)

SANA’A, NewsYemen

The Syrian government has agreed to supply Yemen with 50,000 tons of wheat as a part of the quantity Yemen has demanded from the Syrian Cereals Corporation.

Yemen has demanded 150-200 thousand tons of wheat form the Syrian government to cover the shortage of wheat in Yemeni markets, said the general director of the Yemeni Economic Corporation Ali al-Kohlani.

Yemen has recently signed contracts with many country to buy wheat according to orders of president Saleh to the government to increase imports of necessary food materials and sell them to people in all governorates with cost price.

Meanwhile, al-Kohlani has revealed that three directors in his cooperation have been referred to justice for violations related to wheat sales. He said also that other directors have been given final warnings.

Al-Kohlani said the corporation would punish anyone plays with price of wheat or violates duties.
“This point is not arguable. Anyone who neglects the responsibilities will be severely punished,” said al-Kohlani.

On the other hand, an official in the Economic Corporation’s office in Taiz said that wheat demand is increasing. However, Al-Habari Group, the biggest wheat importer said it would stop selling wheat until the Ministry of Trade and Industry determines the pricing list.