Release of 2021 Financial Governance Report

H.E. Dr. Abdirahman Beileh, Minister of Finance and Chair of the Financial Governance Committee (FGC), has released the FGC’s fifth Financial Governance Report.

The 2021 report reviews issues that have been discussed by the FGC during the past year and the progress made by the Federal Government of Somalia in strengthening financial governance over the period of July 2020 to June 2021. It also highlights the financial governance priorities in 2021–22 that are identified by the FGC to spur economic recovery, strengthen financial governance and achieve HIPC debt relief completion amid challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Although the FGS faced an extremely challenging fiscal policy context in the past 12 months driven by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has made extensive efforts to raise domestic revenue and improve expenditure efficiency whilst reform momentum remained positive.” said Dr. Abdirahman Dualeh Beileh, the Minister of Finance and FGC Chair in his introduction of the Annual Report.

For the second year, the report showcases a ‘spotlight’ chapter that takes a deeper dive into a selected topic to describe the state of play, looking beyond the general single-year time frame of the FGR to identify lessons, persistent barriers to progress, and potential reform priorities. This year’s spotlight issue focuses on improving sector alignment with financial governance reforms.

The FGR 2021 key highlights include progress made in strengthening financial governance, protecting fiscal reforms, natural resource management, concessions and contracts and central bank governance and financial sector reforms.

The FGR 2021 also covers five priority issues that require further attention in the coming twelve months: sustainability of the fiscal position and consolidation of fiscal reforms; transparency and due process in natural resource revenue management; central bank governance and financial sector development; debt management capacity; and compliance and value for money in public procurement and concessions.

Background:

The 2021 Financial Governance Report is available in print in Somali and English languages, and on the Internet at https://mof.gov.so/publications.

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