Following prolonged conflict and state collapse in the early 90s, transitional governance in Somalia ended with the formal recognition of a new Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) in 2012. In a new Somali Compact in 2013, capacity development was identified as a key enabler essential for peacebuilding and state-building. Building core public sector capacities was an immediate objective of the FGS, calling for reform in several core government functions, including centre of government, civil service management, and public sector capacities, as well as the coordinated roll out of basic cross-cutting administrative systems.
Asal was contracted to undertake a Human Resource and Payroll Audit of the Federal Government of Somalia Civil Service as part of the World Bank Capacity Injection Project. CIP supported efforts strengthening the policies and procedures for civil service management and sought to facilitate solutions of the Federal Government of Somalia to manage and implement their civil service and capacity development agenda. It consists of the following sub-components: (i) supporting priority ministries in re-organization and change management; (ii) strengthening basic policies for civil service management; (iii) civil service workforce management; and (iv) strengthening the ethical foundation of the civil service.
Asal undertook a headcount exercise of more than 50 government institutions, accounting for all federal government civil servants and related payroll data. This provided accurate data to the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) on the size of their civil service and the wage bill, an exercise last undertaken in the 1970s. Asal also audited all policies and practices used by the civil service commission of Somalia in the sourcing, recruiting, hiring and managing of civil servants.
The greatest achievement of this project is the sustainable capacity created and the consequential impact on the institutional landscape of Somalia. Through built in capacity strengthening approaches and learning by doing, key civil service commission and ministry of labour workers received training and experience in undertaking HR and Payroll audits resulting in the government capacity to directly undertake HR Audit exercises in future years. In addition, the results of the HR Audit project were used to determine critical gaps in the current FGS HR management practices and policies, including payroll. More importantly, this work helped establish the Somali civil service wage bill, which was a significant milestone contributing to Somalia's effort in securing debt relief.
