Put Public Spending Online
Digitizing government payments can reduce leakage—but a closed digital system is still closed government.
Somaliland’s Ministry of Finance presents public financial-management reform and its integrated financial system as tools to improve budgeting, automate payments and strengthen accountability. That direction is necessary. Yet technology alone does not produce transparency.
A financial system can record every transaction while citizens, Parliament and even line managers remain unable to see useful information. Digitization becomes reform only when it changes who can verify spending, how quickly irregularities are detected and whether decision-makers can be held responsible.
Publish budget execution, not promises
The Ministry’s website promises monthly public-spending reporting, but key report areas visible during WARYATV’s review were still marked “Loading.” The government should publish machine-readable monthly data showing approved budget, actual expenditure, revenue collected, unpaid obligations and transfers to ministries, agencies and districts.
Procurement reporting should identify the purchasing institution, tender method, winning supplier, contract value, delivery period and beneficial owner where legally possible. Sensitive security purchases can use protected oversight, but “national security” should not become a blanket exemption for ordinary expenditure.
Hospitals are the right test case
Rolling the Somaliland Financial Management Information System into public institutions such as Hargeisa General Hospital offers a chance to connect finance with service delivery. The public should be able to compare funds received with medicines purchased, equipment maintained, patient fees collected and unpaid supplier bills. Personal medical data must remain protected.
The Auditor General and parliamentary finance committees need read-only analytical access, immutable audit logs and the capacity to investigate exceptions. Staff who manipulate entries must face predictable penalties.
WARYATV assessment: Somaliland should not confuse the installation of software with the achievement of accountability. The public value of a financial system is proved when it exposes delays, prevents duplicate payments and lets citizens follow money from the national budget to a clinic, school or road.
If the data remain inaccessible, the system may be efficient for administrators while leaving public trust unchanged.
