UN report: Much of Somalia's food aid diverted

[March 10, 2010]  UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Up to half the food aid intended for the millions of hungry Somalis is being diverted to corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants and local U.N. workers, according to a U.N. Security Council report.

The findings, not yet made public, were first reported by The New York Times on Tuesday.

A U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because the report has not yet been released, confirmed to The Associated Press that "a significant diversion" of food delivered by the U.N. food program is being diverted to cartels who were selling it illegally.

The report blames the problem on improper food distribution, the diplomat said.

The Horn of Africa nation has been plagued by fighting and humanitarian suffering for nearly two decades since the collapse of the central government in 1991. Some 3.7 million people -- nearly half of the population -- need aid.

Transporters truck bags of food through roadblocks manned by a bewildering array of militias, insurgents and bandits. Kidnappings and executions are common and the insecurity makes it difficult for senior U.N. officials to travel to the country to check on procedures. Investigators could end up relying on the same people they are probing to provide protection.

Earlier this year, Somalia's main extremist Islamic group said it would prohibit the U.N.'s World Food Program from distributing food in areas under its control because it says the food undercuts farmers selling recently harvested crops.

The group, al-Shabab, also accused the agency of handing out food unfit for human consumption and of secretly supporting "apostates," or those who have renounced Islam.

The Times said the U.N. report recommends Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon open an independent investigation into the World Food Program's Somalia operations.

The U.N.'s ability to conduct investigations was badly damaged in 2009 when it shuttered its special anti-corruption unit, the Procurement Task Force. The unit was established in 2006 but investigations are now conducted by the Office of Internal Oversight Services' permanent investigation division.

An Associated Press analysis in January found not a single significant fraud or corruption case was completed in the 2008, compared with an average 150 cases a year investigated by the task force. Five major corruption cases were halted.

World Food Program spokesman Greg Barrow said the Rome-based agency planned no comment until it had time to study the report.

A Nairobi-based spokesman for the World Food Program had said previously that internal investigations showed between 2 and 10 percent of aid was being sold. Spokesman Peter Smerdon was unable to show journalists that report and had not seen it himself.

The U.S. reduced its funding to Somalia last year after the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control feared aid could be diverted to al-Shabab, which the U.S. State Department says has links to al-Qaida. The issue remains unresolved.

The report also found regional Somali authorities to be collaborating with pirates and says that government ministers have auctioned off diplomatic visas, the Times said.

Finance Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman denied the charge.

"We don't sell visas. That is not true," he said, adding that the Somali government would investigate the allegations of diverted food aid.

Somalia's government is readying a military offensive to combat an Islamist insurgency linked to al-Qaida and retake Mogadishu. The insurgents frequently launch attacks on government forces in the capital and stage public amputations with impunity.

The report found security forces "remain ineffective, disorganized and corrupt," which will likely make the fight a difficult one, according to the Times.

[Associated Press; By EDITH M. LEDERER]

Associated Press writers Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, Kenya, and Mohamed Shiekh Nor in Mogadishu, Somalia, contributed to this report.

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