A TOLOnews investigation has found that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Abdullah Abdullah, has more than 110 advisors, some of whom have advisors themselves.
The CEO’s office meanwhile said Abdullah has only 40 official and contracted advisors and some voluntary ones.
“All the advisors have been appointed based on their experience, their knowledge in different fields and their influence among the people,” said Jawed Faisal, deputy spokesman to the CEO.
Most of the CEO’s advisors live in a building in Shahr-e-Naw.
Abdul Razaq Sanjar, one advisor on tribal and border affairs, said there are advisory committees in the department. According to Sanjar, there are around 80 people working as tribal and border affairs advisors for the CEO around the country.
“We are 10 people [advisors] in tribal and border affairs. We have formed a big committee and work together. We also have other committees that work in their stationed regions. For instance, there is a committee for the south-west, a committee for the eastern region and a committee for the north-east region. We have military, security, transport and youth affairs advisors on all these committees.
There are also advisors for youth affairs that travel to provinces.
“Advisors of the CEO mostly travel to provinces to visit the people,” said Bakht Mohammad Zadran, a CEO advisor on youth affairs.
The CEO’s office also said there are three groups of advisors working for Abdullah. The first group is included in the government structure, the second group is hired based on contracts and they are experts appointed as advisors in their field of expertise, and the third group is the most populous group. They are honorary consultants.
The CEO’s office said Abdullah’s advisors are paid the same as other government staff but some of them work without any privileges.
TOLOnews findings however indicates that the CEO has 111 advisors of whom about 10 work within the government structure and are stationed in the Sapedar Palace. They reportedly earn between 200,000 and 300,000 Afs per month.
Some others advisors who are hired based on contracts and work as experts receive between 50,000 and 70,000 Afs per month.
In addition to this, there are other advisors who work within the government structure and receive $1,500 to $2,000 USD from project budgets funded by foreigners.
Honorary consultants however, work without receiving a salary and receive few benefits, the CEO’s office said.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) meanwhile said salaries of advisors are paid from foreign aid as well as out of budgets of relevant departments.
“The senior advisors are paid according to the salary scale of senior officials. Other advisors are appointed based on the (National Technical Cooperation) agreement in government departments to bring good changes to the relevant offices,” said Ajmal Hamid Abdul Rahimzai, spokesman for the MoF.
Some advisors interviewed by TOLOnews responded to critics and said different people were suited to different jobs.
“A person may not be well-educated, but can work as a tribal advisor. Another person who is not a professional in a field, but is a tribal elder, is a jihadist,” said Sanjar, the tribal and border affairs advisor to the CEO.
“Tell me if there is any advisor who has grabbed land? Tell me if is there are any advisors who have committed oppression? We are aware of what we are doing. We carry out our duties based on the guidelines,” said, Bakht Mohammad Zadran, an advisor on youth affairs.
Analysts meanwhile said appointing advisors has become a way of giving privileges to campaigners in the last elections.
“The advisors of the CEO and President Ashraf Ghani are people who spent lots of money during election campaigns. Now the CEO and Ghani have to appoint them as advisors, because there is no alternative,” said Hikmatullah Shahbaz, a university lecturer.