Employment Scandal: Opposition party slams government

Hargeisa, July 31 (Somaliland.com):- Waddani, the Somaliland opposition party, rebuked the government over supposed irregularities in an employment test for the National Youth Service.

The youth wing leader of Waddani, Mohamed Siddiq Dhamme, said that the government had failed to be just to four hundred young people, and wondered if it can be just in its administration of the four million people of Somaliland.

Speaking at the headquarters of the Waddani party, Dhamme backed the story of some of the youths of the National Youth Service Programme who protested against what they described as a parallel employment test for jobs they were promised. He accused the presidency of misappropriating one hundred jobs out of four hundred promised to the youths of the National Youth Service Programme.

Mr Dhamme said that the National Youth Service Programme was the only accomplishment that the administration could boast of, and now it is marred.

” The National Youth Service Programme which we thought to be an ingenious and beneficial initiative; one that comes with good promises for the youths and encouraged them to seek employment in their country, has ended up in disgrace and scandal. The programme is the only thing that the two-year-old government could boast about. “

The opposition official is referring to the allegations that broke out on Tuesday when the National Youth Service Programme cadre reported a parallel employment test for jobs they were promised.

The government announced employment opportunities with an oil refinery, exclusively for the members of the National Youth Service Programme. Nine hundred youths were reported to have sat for the employment test at Hargeisa University in which three hundred were to be employed.

However, some members of the National Youth Service Programme reported that a parallel employment test was held at Grand Haddi Hotel at the same time as the test in Hargeisa University.

The youth wing chairman of Waddani party said that “the scandal unveiled the real situation of justice and equality in Somaliland under the government of Kulmiye party.”

Four journalists of Eryal TV were also reported to have been arrested for interviewing the youths who complained of the irregularities in the employment test and were later released from the detention.