Finance ministry rules out more changes to budget

KABUL for a second time amounted to a betrayal of the nation.

Parliamentarians have refused to approve the budget for the current year by raising “baseless objections”, advisor to the finance ministry, Najib Manalai, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Earlier in the day, a majority of lawmakers declined to endorse the accounts, saying inequalities in provincial allocations were yet to be corrected.

On March 18, the lower house declined giving their consent to the accounts due to uneven allocations to provinces and a hefty $80 million (3.9 billion afs) bailout package for the ailing Kabul Bank.

Manalai said: “In order to compensate the Kabul Bank, the government is duty-bound to help it through Da Afghanistan Bank, without approval from Parliament.”

But the issue was shared with MPs for the sake of budgetary transparency, he added.

“I think disregarding the legal responsibility of the government and putting billions in international aid at risk (of being wasted) is a betrayal of the nation…” he remarked.

The lawmakers’ excuse was illegal and not worth accepting, the advisor insisted, saying: “The ministry has no resources to amend the budget. The same accounts may be resent to the Wolesi Jirga.”

He also feared that frequent rejections to the budget by lawmakers would create problems for the government.

frm/mud