A part of PRT in Ghazni closed amid criticism

GHAZNI CITY (PAN part of Polish and US Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in the southern province of Ghazni were formally closed on Saturday, with local officials criticising its activities.

The PRTs had spent $168 million on health, Ms Karen Dakaria, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Although direct economic assistance to the province had been halted, but they would continue to help Ghazni through ministries in political and security sphere, she promised.

President Barack Obama was willing to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with Afghanistan and to continue assisting the country, she said, adding the US did not want to stay permanently in Afghanistan.

Governor Musa Khan Akbarzada thanked the PRTs, but said that they were not satisfied with the assistance because the teams could not prove where they had spent $168 million over that past 11 years.

He accused the PRTs of carrying out low-quality works and refusing to hide their reconstruction activities from the government.

For example, the governor said, the PRTs had spent $2.6 million on the construction of police headquarters in each district centre. The maximum cost of each building did not exceed $400,000, he claimed.

The PRTs implemented projects that did not survive even for a year, alleged a member of provincial council, Hamidullah Nawroz. He said due to the corruption the PRTs passed bills for projects that were never executed.

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