Ariana: Afghanistan’s acting finance minister Khalid Payanda said on Thursday that 50 percent of national revenue is being embezzled due to corruption, a lack of capacity and outdated finance system. According to Payanda, reforms will be brought to the current finance system. Click here to read more (external link).
Michael Hughes: The Afghan state will completely collapse if international donors pull funding due to concerns over corruption, which seems to be growing by the day. Predatory Afghan officials – often in league with warlords and transnational criminal organizations – are emptying government coffers as everyone seems to have their attention turned to whether or
Tolo News: According to letters by the civil aviation authority, the Presidential Palace has said that COVID-19 tests should be done by the UAE-based G42-Biogenix in collaboration with the City Laboratory based in Kabul that is owned by Rezwanullah Ahmadzai, an adviser to President Ghani. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: Documents seen by TOLO news show that millions of dollars and hundreds of hundreds of kilograms of gold have been smuggled out of Afghanistan. Sources told TOLO news that a number of lawmakers and politicians in collaboration with the government officials are smuggling US cash and gold from Hairatan Port. Click here to
RFE/RL’s Tajik Service March 2, 2021 A high-ranking Afghan politician has found himself at the center of a scandal in Tajikistan involving $15 million in cash and some 90 kilos of gold bars seized from smugglers at the Dushanbe airport in November. Mohammad Mirza Katawazai, the deputy chairman of the Afghan parliament, angrily rejects the
By Radio Free Afghanistan March 1, 2021 A U.S. government watchdog says the United States has wasted about $2.4 billion on assets such as buildings and vehicles that were either unused or abandoned, had not been used for their intended purposes, had deteriorated, or were destroyed. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which oversees
Ariana: According to the Ministry, cases of officials charged with corruption and extortion of truck drivers on highways have been referred to the Attorney General’s Office for further investigation. The move followed a three-week strike by truck drivers over the corruption allegations. Click here to read more (external link).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 19, 2021 Parwana, an Afghan mother of five, begs on the streets of the southeastern Afghan city of Ghazni. She says seeking charity is her only means of survival since her husband, a policeman, was killed by the Taliban two years ago. “When my husband was killed, I sent the
1TV: Hundreds of vehicles were burnt in a massive blaze that tore through the customs post last week. Iranian drivers say nearly a hundred of vehicles belonged to them. One of the drivers, as quoted by Fars news agency, criticized customs officials for stopping his vehicles for six days while usually it would be released
Tolo News: The joint task team made up of members of the private sector and the House of Representatives, which went to the Islam Qala customs area to investigate the cause of the fire that started on Saturday, said that a “non-standard method of sampling of liquid natural gas” by the Afghanistan National Standards Authority.