By:Yusuf M Hasan
Somalilandsun- The Government of Puntland is unable to undertake any meaningful development because it relies on irrelevant data and subsequent planning.
This was the unanimous decision reached by members of the Puntland parliament during a special sitting in the capital Garowe where an Urban Master Plan had been tabled for approval and the purported author castigated.
According to the legislators the Urban Master Plan submitted for approval by the minister of public works Minister Abdirashid Hirsi Mohamed was irrelevant since it had been plagiarized in toto from that of Neighbouring republic of Somaliland.
The plan already approved by the Puntland council of ministers at a meeting chaired by President Abdiweli Gas and published by the ministry of public works is irrelevant to our country thence can not receive our approval, said the legislators.
“unfortunately Puntland, an administrative region of Somalia which has been existed for 18 years, has its Government failing to present studies based on a genuine assessment of its needs” a legislator told Garoweonline
In justification of their castigations and subsequent approval denial to the urban plan the legislators who accused the government of President Gas of having resorted to duplication of plans from Somaliland especially a book titled “Urban Master Planning”
The perturbed members who accused the Puntland government and more so its public works minister of mindlessness quoted page 9, article 1.2.2 of the wrongful appropriated publication”
That states: “National City Planning Committee and regional governors are responsible to present plans for the six regions; Maroodi-Jeeh, Togdheer, Sanag Awdal, Sool and Saahil.(this are the main regions of Somaliland though Sool and Sanaag border Puntland)
Also in page 12, article 1.3 the Somaliland Master Urban plan points out the role of several agencies that are non existent within the structure of Puntland administration, but specific to somaliland such as Ministry of Posts and Communication, Ministry of Minerals and Water, Ministry of Rural Development and National Planning committees.
The Somaliland urban plan also dictates that the specific regional administrations, local governments and ministries it mentioned must review the plan once every 10 years.”
With the entire legislature irate with public works minister some were specific in apportioning blame to the Council of Ministers for endorsing the stolen Urban Development Plan without verifying its contents.
According to Garowe online the besieged Public works minister decamped immediately to his stronghold of Galkayo town where the construction of a livestock market he fronted resulted in deadly clashes between Galmudug and Puntland forces in Which a large number of residents have lost lives and over 50,000 displaced and counting.
To date neither the Plagiarist Puntland public works minister Abdirashid Hirsi Mohamed nor his boss president Abdiweli Gas have reacted to the damning exposure of the government’s “wrongful appropriation” of Somaliland’s Urban Master Planning” publication 
The Somaliland The Urban Planning Manual facilitated by UN-Habitat as part of the Joint Program Local Governance-JPLG was launched and subsequently approved by the National Urban Planning Committee in Hargeisa in April 2016
