Yemen’s Ministry of Culture: Overpaid Officials, False Promises, and Dead Recipients

26 April 2020

In January 2010, former Minister of Culture Muhammad Abu Bakir Al-Muflihi announced the launch of 500 million rials (or $2,272,000) worth of cultural projects, as part of the Ministry’s Heritage and Cultural Development Fund. However, to date, none of these projects have been implemented — not even the restoration of the ancient Dar Al-Hamad Palace or any of Sanaa’s antique houses.

This was not the first or last time projects were directed but never actualised. The article on restoring Dar Al-Hamad appeared in the Fund’s budget between 2005 and 2015, and was even at the top of the statements issued by officials praising the completion of dozens of projects classified within the Ministry of Culture’s “achievements”. However, the Ministry’s declarations contradict with the findings of the journalist conducting this investigation, which proves that the so-called “cultural projects” in fact constitute an opportunity for the acquisition of the Fund’s resources that are estimated at being worth millions of dollars.

Funds allocated to projects and other activities related to the Fund’s mission are transferred to savings that do not spill over to the following year. Instead, the money is spent through various avenues and on items other than those to which they are allocated. This investigation reveals that the sums go to the benefit of Fund employees, the Ministry and other politically loyal people in charge of the money.

Yemeni officials from the Ministry of Culture attribute the lack of cultural activity to the scarcity of funds. However, this investigation reveals that there are recurring practices that devour billions of rials collected from Yemeni citizens in the name of “supporting cultural development”. The negligence of various supervisory bodies including the Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption, the Central Organisation for Control and Auditing, and the ministries of Finance and Civil Service, enables these practices to occur.


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