The Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) on Saturday dismissed three ministers after they failed to provide satisfactory report backs on the spending of development budgets.
The ministers are Minister of Public Works Mahmood Baligh; Minister of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled Nasreen Oryakhil, and Salahuddin Rabbani, the minister of foreign affairs.
Parliament announced last week that it would summon ministers from Saturday over their failure to spend their development budgets.
A joint parliamentary commission said that every minister has to explain the reasons for not spending their budgets.
Lawmakers warned they would move to dismiss ministers from the job unless they table convincing responses over budget issues.
“From Saturday until next Thursday three ministers will be summoned every day and at the end of the session ballot boxes will be put for voting whether to give them a vote of confidence or not,” said MP Bashir Ahmad Tayyanj.
Some MPs meanwhile speculated that the surge in violence had been the main reason for ministers not spending their budgets. ?
“There will not be any particular excuse unless there are some security issues, and also Afghanistan is not in a situation to say that our economy is all right and money is not spent,’ said MP Zekirya Sawda.
“It would be better that these violations are investigated by the legal and judicial institutions so that the nation witnesses better work being done in the future,” said MP Ghulam Farooq Majroh.
Fifteen ministries have failed to spend their development budgets.
According to the Supreme Audit Office (SAO), last year even little money was spent – with much having been embezzled. ?
SAO noted that during the past year government institutions allocated money to various sectors even without defining a program which was in contradiction to the laws of the country.
The SAO stated that last year only 17 percent of 283 billion AFG which was allocated for the ordinary budget was spent by government institutions. The SAO added that another 152 billion AFG was allocated for development and only 46.5 percent of the money was spent.
According to SAO, last year the government failed to complete the targets set by the World Bank.
SAO said the government lost $121 million USD in grants by the World Bank last year after it failed to implement WB’s targets.http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/28297-3-ministers-fail-to-secure-vote-of-confidence-by-parliament
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