Taqwa blasts govt appointment policy in towns

KABUL): Kabul governor Abdul Jabbar Taqwa on Saturday criticised the government’s policy of appointing officials in rural areas, saying selecting officials from local communities and hiring them to serve in native areas had negative results.

Addressing a seminar “Access to Justice” in Kabul, the governor said he had received complaints from residents in districts accusing local officials of incompetency and bad governance.

He said the government had many achievements in developing the country’s infrastructure, providing citizens with access to clean dinking water, electricity and road networks over the past 12 years.

“But some problems remain. People are complaining about the appointment of officials who are selected from locals. Such selections had no good results in the past regimes as well,” he said.

He said the appointment system had been a reason behind the weak administration and problems in enforcing laws. Such officials could not perform well due their familiarity and close relations with local residents.

He suggested residents of one province should be appointed on government positions in another province in order to improve the government’s performance in districts.

About problems in the lower judiciary in Kabul districts, the governor said most districts in the central province had no judges.

Khak-i-Jabbar district chief Abdul Bari said his administration had no problem in running its affairs, but a primary court should be established in the district so that residents could avoid moving courts in Kabul City.

He said he had consulted the relevant authorities in connection with the creation of a primary court in Khak-i-Jabbar.

Moshi district chief Syed Suliaman confirmed the governor’s concern, saying appointing officials selected from local residents had been a cause of dissatisfaction among the residents concerned.

Sulaiman said his town also lacked a judicial court and residents had to travel to Kabul City for resolving their cases.

Attorney General Office (AGO) spokesman Mohammad Basir Azizi rejected Taqwa’s complaints that most Kabul districts lacked courts, saying there were no such concerns.

A spokesman for the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) said all government officials were being appointed in accordance with the government’s standards and criteria and appointments made by IDLG were based on competition.

mds/ma

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