After successive letters from the Somalia Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi to IGAD and to IGAD Executive Secretary Mr. Workneh requesting cancelation or postponement of Minister Fiqi’s cousin’s retirement date, Dr. Guleid Artan is now officially told by IGAD to retire effective as of 31 July 2024.
However, the situation now gets worse for Dr. Guleid Artan. After yesterday’s Radio Daljir exposé of Foreign Minister Fiqi’s angry letters to IGAD, not on official IGAD business but to help keep the retiring cousin, Dr. Guleid Artan, on the job as IGAD Director of ICPAC, now IGAD issues a directive that expressly tells Dr. Artan that his retirement is now “compulsory” and that he should clear his desk by 31st July 2024.
In an IGAD internally circulated letter right after yesterday’s Radio Daljir exposé with the subject line “Directives Pertaining to ICPAC Supervision and Performance Review,” IGAD Deputy Executive Secretary Mohamed Ware, former President of Hirshabelle Federal Member State of Somalia, tells IGAD Director of Planning and Dr. Guleid Artan that “after lengthy extension to allow for the completion of critical projects and give the outgoing Director ample time to prepare for his retirement,” the Director’s compulsory retirement will be effective as of 31 July 2024.
It doesn’t end there but gets worse for the retiring Director. Deputy ES Mohamed Abdi Ware is put in charge to “conduct a comprehensive institutional review of ICPAC … develop ToR for the performance review, establish an evaluation team to conduct the reviews and submit the final evaluation report by 31st July 2024,” the day Dr. Artan is to officially retire.
What does this mean you may ask? We asked the same question to an expert in the field of retirement and performance review.
Here is what the expert told Daljir: “This is a message to Villa Somalia and to Minister Fiqi. The message is that IGAD will review everything about Dr. Artan, his credentials and his job performance, and if he is found to have violated any rule, he could lose his retirement benefits. The worst part is that a Somali official, the Deputy Executive Secretary, is put in charge to report to Dr. Workneh, the Executive Secretary. So, Minister Fiqi has a choice: keep quiet or your cousin could lose everything.”
Minister Fiqi now comes to a fork on the road. Which way will he take?
Stay tuned to Daljir as the saga of Minister Fiqi vs. Executive Secretary Workneh for the benefit of Minister Fiqi’s cousin takes a new turn, and the retirement benefits of Dr. Guleid Artan go under the microscope and in jeopardy.
Contributed to by Daljir staff in Mogadishu and Garoowe
COMMENTS
Dr.Artan is hardworking fellow who has built ICPAC from scratch and hence deserves something better (like becoming Somalia next PM) than what he is getting from the IGAD management. The problem he is facing is an on-going campaign to force out Somalis and replace them with Ethiopians, mainly Oromos. The question that you need to ask the EC is why this so-called retirement does not apply to the Ethiopians- those of them who are over 60 years old but still receive contract extension. Next, if Dr. Artan leaves on July 31, 2024, his replacement should be another Somali because he is the only real director we have had.