Water, Energy Minister Survives No-Confidence Vote

The minister of water and energy, Ali Ahmad Osmani on Monday survived the no-confidence vote of Parliament Members at the Lower House after offering some satisfactory explanations.

The Lower House summoned Mr. Osmani over failure in spending more than 60 percent of the development budget, allegation of illegal hiring and terminating some electrical projects.

Osmani got 124 votes of confidence, 32 votes of rejection, six invalid votes, one blank vote and finally succeed to remain in his position.

Afghan lawmakers criticized the poor performances of the ministry and emphasized that the existence of corruption has caused most of the electronic and water supply projects fail to be finalized.

“Most of the projects signed with the highest costs contrary to the constitutions. The Presidential Palace’s written shows a shocking corruption in the ministry,” said Kamal Naser Osoli, the representative of Khost.

However, in his address to parliament, the minister of energy claimed a large number of projects have been finalized with the implementation of basic works.

“We spend nearly $338 million in several projects in the last year. Controlling the waters of Afghanistan is one of the main issues we have done. A corrupted minister would never implement projects in insecure areas but I did it,” said Ali Ahmad Osmani.

Meanwhile, a number of other lawmakers praised the ministry of water’s efforts and complained over his summon.

This comes as several cabinet ministers including security officials were summoned to the Lower House and dismissed after failing to provide satisfactory briefings.