The Financial Governance Committee (FGC) today held its 32nd meeting in the Ministry of Finance offices in Mogadishu.

The FGC reviewed the Central Bank’s efforts to recover Somali financial assets held in foreign institutions. The Minister of Finance set the FGS an ambitious target to complete all negotiations and repatriate all assets by March 2019. Banks in Italy, the UK and Switzerland still hold Somali assets. The Minister called upon the international community to provide concrete support to the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank to finalize the recovery of all remaining assets in overseas banks.

The FGC received an update on the FGS’s progress in registering SNA personnel and paying their salaries straight to bank. To date, 5,762 personnel have been registered in Banadir region and paid to bank. The registering exercise will now be extended to SNA personnel in the Federal Member States and the Federal Police Force.

Minister Beileh emphasized the crucial role of the FGC in supporting the constitutional discussions. In the coming months, decisions will need to be made on establishing clear fiscal relations between the Federal Government and the Member States. He looked forward to meeting FMS Ministers of Finance to finalize agreement on the necessary transparent, accountable and participatory governance of fiscal and economic systems.

The FGC noted the good feedback received on the Financial Governance Report released in June 2018 and, in the interests of openness, have produced a Somali language version of the report.