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MPs claim budget changes for new fiscal still not included
Members of Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) said on Wednesday that billions of Afghanis (AFN) have been added to government’s special code funds in the third draft of the new fiscal year’s budget, which MPs claim provides more opportunities for money to be embezzled.
In addition, MPs questioned the salaries of government employees and said many were paid badly. They in turn accused government of not paying attention to their plight.
“Allocation of budget should not be based on nepotism. Eighteen violations are cited in the draft budget. Equalizing salaries is the key demand of people; but government is careless about it. Personal issues should not lead to insufficiency in the budget,” said Nilofar Ibrahimi, one MP.
“Changes have not been made by the government to the budget; the salaries are not balanced and ways to embezzle (money) have not been prevented,” said Taha Sadiq, another member of the Wolesi Jirga.
“Approving the budget without equalizing salaries will be a big problem for the nation,” said Fazal Karim Aimaq, a member of the Wolesi Jirga.
Meanwhile, Mir Rahman Rahmani, speaker of the house, said government should respect the Wolesi Jirga’s recommendations about budget amendments.
According to Rahmani the general session of the Jirga will break soon but house commissions will work through their recess in order to deal with the budget.
“We don’t have problems with the budget, there is no political decision behind the budget approval. Nor is the budget being held hostage, we are trying to improve the budget,” added Rahmani.
On the other hand, some MPs said that officials from the Ministry of Finance should be summoned to parliament to provide clarification on the budget.
This comes after MPs twice rejected the draft budget for the 1400 solar year – which starts in April.
On both occasions they have called on government to equalize salaries and bring changes to the code funds.