Early last year, the Eritrean government and the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment and Development Company (DREIDC), a state owned development company, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop a resort in the Dahlak Islands.  Representing Eritrea was its Minister of Finance, Mr. Berhane Abrehe; representing DREIDC was its CEO, Mr. Nasser Hassan Al Ansari.   

DREIDC, which subcontracts out the labor to Egyptians and Southeast Asians, is in a major dispute with its contractors and the resort project has been stalled.  

The decision to hire DREIDC was on the strength of its glossy brochure (now available at youtube) for Sudan’s Alsunut, a six billion dollar project to develop residential and commercial complex at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile.  

In Eritrea, major development projects do not require the approval of a national parliament, or even that of a panel of experts. The news that the Dahlak Resort Project has been stalled will come as major news to many who were not even aware that it had started.  This is because in Eritrea select individuals make feel-good decisions without conducting even the bare minimum due diligence and there is no legislative body that has oversight function over the executive.    

In the transportation field alone, examples of the trial-and-error approach include: 

1. Harat.   In 2006, General Humed Mohammed Karikare, commander of Eritrea’s navy, felt it would be a morale booster to buy an ocean liner to commemorate Operation Fenkel.  The ship was purchased, the Eritrean state media advertised it heavily; then the ship was returned when it was found out to be not seaworthy.    (See awate’s report on Ship of Fools.) 

2. Airlines.  Eritrean Airlines, or the Queen Bee as it was known, a leased Boeing 767, was acquired in 2003.  In 2004, it added its second Boeing.  But since then, the plane has been practically grounded and its captain now resides in Seattle, Washington. 

3. Buses.  In the 1990s, Mr. Tewolde Vacaro (“wedi vacaro”), a private citizen with then-deep connections to the ruling party, PFDJ, bought buses for the municipality of Asmara.  A few months later, they were all found to be dysfunctional and dumped at Bet Giorgis.   

This trial and error approach is practiced everywhere including higher education, trade and other sectors.  Experts and regulatory bodies are not consulted and the relevant ministries have no say on the matter. 

For example, many agro industries and agricultural sites are not supervised by the Minister of Agriculture but by construction company managers like Mr. Tesfai Gurage (Segen Construction) or Mr. Mebrahtu Mael (Gedem Construction Company.)