Some members of the Afghan National Police (ANP) in remote and insecure regions of Afghanistan have said that government has not paid their salaries for the past three months.
The finance department at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) has confirmed that many police officers fighting the Taliban have not received their salaries in the past three months.
Interior ministry meanwhile pledged to pay their salaries as soon as possible.
But the head of the budget and economic department of the ministry of interior said that donor countries have not paid the salaries of 30,000 officers since the month of March.
Donor countries in turn said that these officers have not been registered on the new biometric system, therefore their salaries have been suspended.
“Our salary is lost, they do not pay us our salaries, it is an act of oppression against us,” said Jamil, a police officer in Kandahar.
“We have not received salaries over the past three months, we are doing 20 hours duty in 24 hours, we sleep only four hours, but they are not paying our salaries,” said Sediq, a police officer in Kandahar.
Some NATO officials have said that the suspension of salaries of 30,000 officers was due to the existence of corruption in the leadership of the security institutions and that the details of these soldiers have not been recorded in the new biometric system.
But the MoI’s spokesman said that the number was a lot lower than 30,000.
MoI spokesman Najib Danish said that some of the officers need to be registered on the biometric system and that the issue will be resolved soon.
“Some of the police officers, who have not been included in the system, have had their salaries put on hold, but the minister of interior has directed the finance department at the ministry to pay their salaries from some other sources, but when their biometric process is completed, their salaries will be paid normally,” said Danish.
MoI officials have said that the affected officers serve in Kunduz, Helmand, Uruzgan and Zabul provinces.