A number of documents obtained by TOLOnews reveals that Nasir Ahmad Durani, Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, has appointed 50 people in different posts, including bodyguards, on three month contracts.
According to the documents, the minister has appointed 23 bodyguards, 11 drivers, six people as general workers, four assistants and two cooks.
The combined monthly salaries of the newly appointed staff members also exceeds one million Afs, the documents indicate.
Based on government’s policy, the VIP Protection Unit is responsible for the safety of ministers and it pays the salaries of ministers bodyguards.
A number of anti-corruption monitoring organizations said it was a misuse of authority on the part of the minister in appointing more than 10 drivers.
“It is a misuse of authorities given by government, it is a kind of corruption and it overspends government’s budget,” said Husain Fakhri, head of the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption.
“These issues exist not only in the rural rehabilitation and development ministry but also exists in other ministries as well if it is assessed,” said Khan Zaman Amarkhail, head of Afghanistan Anti-Corruption Network (AACN).
Meanwhile, the Wolesi Jirga’s (Lower House of Parliament) administrative board urged the minister to respond in this respect.
“It is a crime if the documents are accurate. The Constitution has allowed us to summon and ask ministers,” the Wolesi Jirga secretary Abdul Qadir Zazai said.
However, Akbar Rustami, spokesman for Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), said the staffers have been appointed in directorates operating under the minister’s office.
“They do not only belong to the minister’s office; they belong to directorates under the minister’s office which generally includes advisers and other officials in the [minister’s] office,” Rustami told TOLOnews.
President Ashraf Ghani recently suspended the deputy head of financial and administrative office of the ministry and ordered an assessment into MRRD’s appointments.
Sources say that the deputy head of the financial and administrative office of the ministry however had continued to go to his office following the president’s order.