Abdisalam Omer Hadliye (Cabdisalaan Cumar Hadliye)

Who is he?

Abdisalam Omer Hadliye is a Somali economist and public finance official who has worked in Washington, D.C., for the United Nations and for the Somali federal government. He was Governor of the Central Bank of Somalia in 2013 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 2017 (Wikipedia, Abdisalam Hadliye).

Education and early career

His family comes from the Awdal region. He moved to the United States at 16, earned a degree in economics at Boston College in 1977, a master's in public administration at Oklahoma State University, and a PhD in public administration at the University of Tennessee in 1986, where he also taught (same source).

Washington, D.C.

From 1992 he worked in the D.C. budget office. He became chief financial officer of D.C. Public Schools in 1996, deputy chief financial officer of the city government in May 1997, and in April 1999 chief of staff in the mayor's office. In February 2007 he returned to D.C. Public Schools as chief business officer (Wikipedia; Stars and Stripes, 17 November 2016).

UN work in the north

From 2002 to 2006 he led the UN Development Programme's Governance and Financial Services programme in Puntland and Somaliland, training staff in tax collection and budgets. He started UNDP's first programme to support money transfer businesses (Wikipedia). See Hawala and money transfer companies.

Central Bank governor, 2013

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud appointed him governor on 17 January 2013. In May 2013 he said provisional bank licences would be replaced by full licences and that the government planned new banknotes to replace the old shilling (Wikipedia; CBS, History).

In July 2013 the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea reported that about 80 percent of Central Bank withdrawals were for private purposes and named him as key to the irregularities. He denied this, said the payments it described were made before he took office, asked for an independent audit and said most of the funds were in a Finance Ministry account (Jakarta Post, 20 July 2013; WardheerNews, citing Reuters). The government hired FTI Consulting and a US law firm, and in September 2013 said their review had found the UN annex "deeply flawed and entirely unreliable" (Yahoo News, citing AP). He resigned on 13 September 2013 and was replaced by Yussur A. F. Abrar (Wikipedia). See The Central Bank of Somalia.

Foreign Minister, 2015 to 2017

Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke named him Foreign Minister on 27 January 2015, and he took office on 14 February 2015 from Abdirahman Duale Beyle. He served until 29 March 2017. In that role he attended Arab League meetings in Cairo and signed education and civil aviation agreements with Qatar in March 2015 (Wikipedia; Goobjoog News, February 2015).

Sources disagree

• His name. He appears as Abdisalam Omer, Abdusalam H. Omer, Abdisalan Hadliye Omar and Abdisalam Omer Hadliye.
• When he left the bank. Wikipedia says he resigned on 13 September 2013, hours after being told of changes; other reports at the time said he was dismissed (Wikipedia).