WJ refers 10 govt entities to judicial organs

KABUL (WJ) on Saturday rejected budget utilisation reports and decided to refer 10 government entities to judicial organs for violating the relevant law.

The lower house budget commission shared the reports with lawmakers. The commission head, Sadiqizada Nili, said 98 percent of general and 57 percent of development budgets were utilised last solar year.

Of 56 government institutions, the legislator claimed, 10 violated the budget utilisation law.

The violators include ministries of defense, finance, higher education, foreign affairs, transport and civil aviation, social affairs, martyrs and disabled, the administrative affairs office, Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC), Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace’s security wing.

He added the departments had created 960 new positions and ministries of defense and foreign affairs and Supreme Court transferred millions of afghanis from development budget to general spending.

Nili also blamed the Ministry of Finance for irregularities in managing budget affairs. The ministries of rural development, defence, information, telecommunications, transport, finance, education, foreign affairs, interior, the Breshna Shirkat and the Natural Disaster Management Authority were also found violating the law.

Without providing details, Nili said some of departments used less than 40 percent of their budgets while others used more than 60 percent of funds.

After a lengthy debate, lawmakers rejected the report and decided to introduce the 10 departments to judicial organs. Some of members suggested referring more entities to the judiciary for flouting the rule.

A lawmaker from Farah province, Sarwar Usmani, lashed out at the departments for spending small amounts of their budgets. He said nothing was done for implementing 203 projects.

Speaker Abdur Rauf Ibrahimi ordered the budget commission to introduce the 10 government bodies to courts. He also ordered relevant house panels to jointly investigate the irregularities in payments by the 13 other organs.

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