A United Nations report obtained by VOA says Somalia's transitional government is so deeply corrupt that it is ruled by a popular Somali phrase — “What's in it for me?”

The U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea suggests some leaders want to “hijack or derail” Somalia's political transition process for personal gain.

The government's mandate is due to end in August. Funding comes largely from the U.N., United States and European Union.

The report says 70 percent of government revenue did not reach public coffers in 2009 and 2010.

It says the offices of the president, prime minister and parliament speaker “absorbed” nearly one-quarter of all expenditures in 2011.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council Monday, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed described the report as “unfair and destructive.”