Somalia hires PricewaterhouseCoopers to manage development funds

The world's largest accountancy firm has been appointed to allocate international aid in Somalia in an effort to demonstrate to donors that contributions will be spent on national development. PwC will set up money tracking systems to ensure that relief assistance, including $67 million pledged by international donors in April, will be spent on security, health and education instead of being siphoned into officials' pockets. The firm has undertaken similar work in Afghanistan and Sudan, and will receive a commission of between two and four percent on all funds that reach their intended destinations.

Embroiled in an 18-year civil war, efforts to combat Islamic insurgents and recent piracy attacks are compromised by the slow delivery of funds from donors who are hesitant to invest in a country without a formal banking system. Somalia's first Deputy Prime Minister Abdulrahman Adan Ibrahim said:

We want to be different from other African countries. We want to show the world that the money given to us will be going to where they want it, to be used in a transparent way.

Clearly, outsourcing is the answer.

Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak/Flickr