The Real Situation of Borama Municipality

Preface: This piece of writing is a scientific research which I have conducted recently, the sources of information is from of course different areas, including interviews with intellectuals and educated persons, UN reports and as well as observations from Borama Municipality.

I am not a writer but in order our people to make use the fallout we generate, I came up with this excellent piece of script, its not a history, or a opinion rather it’s a tangible and precise research.

I am Abdi-asis Sheikh Farah doing my undergraduate study at Universal Medical College in Addis Ababa. Needles to say we need to familiarize ideas and instruction already printed in the textbooks of Psychology and Philosophy explaining positive and negative attitudes, and as well as mentality, because you can find from the libraries in Saudi Arabia, Addis Ababa and of course in Amoud University.

Defining the problem, obtaining expert judgment, making research decision, formulating hypotheses, selecting a research design, preparing a sample frame, constructing a research instrument, editing, coding, tabulation, interpretation, testing the hypothesis, and making presentation is the process of developing an excellent piece of writings.

Borama Municipality is an autonomous agency. The role of the municipality is to develop and manage metropolitan and countryside sectors that are unable to be self-sufficient. However, development of Borama Municipality has been significantly hindered by its history of civil turbulence. As a result, social services are very weak in most of the main villages within the district and the municipality services have knowledgeable great difficulties in responding to the needs of the population concentrated in both rural and urban areas.

Although I am very much delighted the way every thing is going on at present in the region of Awdal, and would like to pay special gratitude to the Mayor of Borama Abdi Shide Bile who made possible and showed to our people how we can do every thing without getting much hand from outside. But on the other hand I am really very distress for the previous Mayors who destroy the whole system of Borama Local Government, and this formula is illustrating us that the community should nominate persons like the present Mayor for such kind of positions, because what I feel is the prior system has not been operational for over 15 years and has negative impact on the town.

for instance revenue collection was weak and recovery figures were also very low. Several revenue areas were not measured, collections were not executed correctly and it was found that many street vendors do not pay, financial systems were not correctly recorded, and there were no internal audits. . In the annual accounts, income and expenditure did not match deficit or savings. Overstaffing is a major obstacle for municipal agencies. As a result, overstaffing has reduced the mean salaries per month, per staff member. Employment is not allocated on merit but on a tribal basis. These dynamic and other contributing factors were the main reasons of the theory of backwardness by the Borama Municipality

On the other hand still there is a challenge that the new Mayor may came across, there is no effective registration of street vendors for daily collection or of their licenses and property for planning purposes This has consequences for work productivity. The Statistical and Planning unit is not functioning at present. Consequently, no baselines have been established and no needs assessments have taken place which would advise on how to advance the development process.
Improvement in social services in urban and rural sectors is consequently lacking.

Social and Economic Factors Borama is considered to be one of the poorest urban settlement areas in Somaliland. The urban poor are the predominant socio-economic group in the town. Business settlers are mainly involved in petty trade and casual work. Recent surveys indicate that women engaged in petty trading on a daily basis earn household incomes. This has affected urban tax collection. The lack of a Statistical and Planning Unit has contributed to misadministration of the working mechanism of the Municipality.

The establishment of this unit will improve and support the efficiency of the Municipality. The UN, EC and International Agencies are required to present a clear institutional framework to cope with the type of support that could be assisted and implemented in Borama district. This will help to streamline the various interventions of the International Agencies operating in the district.

* To provide for the core principles, mechanisms and processes that are necessary to enable Borama municipality to move progressively towards the social and economic upliftment of local communities, and ensure universal access to essential services that are affordable to all:

* To define the legal nature of a municipality as including the local community within the municipal area, working in partnership with the municipality’s political and administrative structures.

* To provide for the manner in which municipal powers and functions are exercised and performed; to provide for community participation; to establish a simple and enabling framework for the core processes of planning, performance management, resource mobilization and organizational change which underpin the notion of developmental local government.

* To provide a framework for local public administration and human resource development.

* To empower the poor and ensure that Borama municipality put in place service tariffs and credit control policies that take their needs into account by providing a framework for the provision of services, service delivery agreements and municipal service district.

* To provide for credit control and debt collection; to establish a framework for support,, monitoring and standard setting systems in order to progressively build local government into an enticement, frontline development agency capable of integrating the activities of municipality for overall social and economic upliftment of communities in harmony with their local natural environment; to provide for legal matters pertaining to local government.

* And to provide for matters incidental thereto. The truth of the matter is the new system of local government, which requires an efficient, effective and transparent local public administration that conforms to constitutional principles.

Whereas there is a need to set out the core principles, mechanisms and processes that give meaning to developmental local government and to empower municipality of Borama to move progressively towards the social and economic strengthen of communities and the provision of basic services to all our people, and specifically the poor and the disadvantaged;

* To make my long story short, I want to be grateful with the praiseworthy Mayor of Borama for his accomplishment, UN-habitat for its support of urban planning in the town and for its continuous training to the staff of Borama Municipality. Along the lines of this I am also thanking to individuals for their outstanding contribution and organizations like Amoud Foundation for their concrete efforts for funding projects like, Health, Droughts and Al-Hayat Hospital in the region. I am also obliged to individuals who contribute their skills and their piece of writings to publicize the needs of the region.

Finally, as good if not better then, I am also going to take this opportunity to show appreciation my older brother Mohamed Sheikh Farah, who without his support I could have never been attempt to write this article, for his support of paying tuition fees for the University I am studying and living allowances. My Allah gives you the reward of this al of you.

By Abdi-asis sheikh Farah
Universal Medical College
Department of Pharmacology
Pharmacist Technician

Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia