Point of order!

In January 2007, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) gave commendations to auditors the world over including Eritrea’s Auditor General, Berhane Habtemariam.  According to ACCA: 

“…a special commendation has been awarded to Berhane Habtemariam, auditor general of Eritrea for his commitment to advancing the cause of ethics and professionalism.” - http://www.accaglobal.com/news/general/2819877 

This is a troubling recognition on many levels and one could only surmise that the measure was taken out of ignorance.  In fact, if the ACCA knew of the Eritrean regime's hiring/promotion practice which selects easy-to-blackmail and easy-to-initimidate individuals, it would have had second thoughts about its decision to honor the man.

The Facts

The role of the Auditor General is to audit all government books and verify if they are implementing government expenses according to budget; to verify that they are not misusing government cash; that the inland revenue is collecting taxes properly; that there is no embezzlement; that auctions and bids are carried out in accordance with government regulations etc. etc

Does the ACCA know how the country, Eritrea, is run?

Eritrea is a country that does not have a parliament that endorses a national budget. Not only this, the cabinet does not have any information concerning the national budget and never talks about it in the rare sessions held by its self-declared president, Isaias Afwerki.

As far as I know, if any ministry wants hard currency for importing any goods it needs, it can only ask the office of the president. No one, not even the governor of the national bank, has access to the disbursement of foreign currency.

A country without a budget, a monetary and a fiscal policy is like a car that does not have fuel meter.

If we look into the workings of the Auditor General’s office, we find that the sectors that it audits are only the underdogs; namely: Inland Revenue, Customs, and Transport etc. The huge party-owned parastatals like Red Sea Trading Corporation, Anberbeb Share Company, the President’s Office, the various businesses run by the military or anything having to do with the ruling party, the PFDJ, is exempt from being audited. The military, which is very notorious for being the most corrupt institution in the nation, does not even have internal auditors.

Is this the type of ethics and professionalism that the ACCA wants to recognize?

The last ethical, professional government official who challenged the ruling party’s exemption from taxes is Brigadier General Estifanos Seyoum.  He is more deserving of the prize, although even if he did receive the award he would not know it because he has been languishing in secret detention for nearly six years (since September 18, 2001) for the ethics, professionalism and courage he, as director of the Inland Service, demonstrated when he demanded that the ruling party businesses pay their fair share of taxes.  

Like any person in the government, Berhane Habtemariam has only two choices: either acts as a sheep (as he is doing now) or assert himself (and get sacked or arrested.)  He has chosen to act as sheep. That might be a good survival tactic, but hardly deserving of honorable mention—for ethics and professionalism, no less!

If the recognition is for being the meekest “yes man,” then Berhane Habtemariam certainly deserves the prize.  But he would have to compete for the prize with his colleagues Fowzia Hashim, Tesfay Gebreselassie, Asfaha Abraha and Amna Nurhussein and others whose only merit is as a “yes man” to the dictator.

It is because of people like Berhane Habtemariam that the country is now in a very bad shape financially. I do not expect much from people like Berhane. Everything is fine for him as long as he has abundant tobacco for his pipe.

Troubled History

In the years following Eritrea’s independence (1991), Berhane tried to show his muscle by making serious efforts to audit ministries and departments including the military. In no time, he knew that either he will fail in his bid or he will be relegated to the polar region.

He immediately made a U-turn and preferred to be the perpetual chief of the Audit office by keeping silent. Most of his acquaintances know that he had had the ambition of becoming the minister of finance or minister of economic planning. He was not lucky enough to have the post even after the incarceration of the G15.

Although you would not know this from the recent interview that Hadas Ertra had with him, the history of Berhane Habtemariam is a mixed bag, to say the least:

Prior to the second organizational congress [1987], all heads of the ruling party’s mass organization were ordered to establish themselves inside the Eritrean field. One of the main reasons was that their expenses were intolerable. It was more than all civilian departments of the front combined together. As a result, all heads of the party-controlled national union of Eritrean students, workers, women (NUES, NUEW, and NUEW) came to the field and established their offices.

Thus, Berhane joined the field for the simple reason that he received a directive from the leadership of the EPLF, namely Issayas, to do so.

But poor Berhane still claims that he had been “assigned” to London and Canada before he was "assigned" to Eritrea. Apparently, he still does not know that EPLF does not tell some to come directly to the field. It fakes many ruses and make-believe scenarios so that the person comes to the field confidently. He does not know that some were called for “a meeting” and never left the field.  Poor Berhane believed the story that he had been “assigned” to the places he named.

In his interview with the government newspaper Hadas Ertra, Berhane claimed to have come to the field to initiate the functions of an Auditor. This is a white lie because, as far as I can remember, the work of Auditing had already started in 1980: there was a section within the Finance department (Kifli Ghenzeb).  Unfortunately for him, most of its members are alive and well and can testify to this. How dare Berhane say that he was called to the field for this specific purpose? I am sorry Berhane, you can utter such lies only after all the people that know the facts are dead. You can be whatever you like but making a blatant lie is something I never expected from you.

Coming to the issue of auditing, there had always been repeated reports that Berhane’s NUEW was guilty of mishandling cash and an audit was scheduled to look into it.  But once Berhane was transferred to the field and he became the chief auditor as well as a member of the Higher Economic Commission, he blocked every effort by responsible persons to audit his ex-post on the pretext that the audit staff was overloaded with work.  Those who want to independently verify this information can talk to his union members from this period.  The Higher Economic Commission was made up of Tesfay China, the late Ahmed Balkeir, the late Michael Fessehaye and Berhane Habtemariam.  

To this date, no one knows if the disbursement of hundreds of thousands of cash that he was responsible for while he headed the Union are fully accounted for. People who were close to the Union say that Berhane was so cunning that he outsmarted the EPLF from auditing him.

Eritrea needs people who are more dynamic than Berhane. Berhane is a person who perfectly knows that as long as he does not antagonize the president by nagging him with culpable audit reports, he will stay as head of the General Auditor’s Office. Nor will he disclose any report he considers helpful for the economy of the country if he knows that the man will reject it. As usual it is people like Berhane who can survive PFDJ's juggernaut not the dynamic ones who spoke their mind and passed away.

Hardly a profile in ethics and professionalism.