70pc people illegally hired at ID cards distribution dept

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) on Wednesday said 70 percent of individuals had been illegally appointed in the Electronic Identity Cards Distribution Department.

MEC chief executive Dr. Rashid Behroz told a press conference in Kabul that the committee’s investigation showed various circles had tried to get appointed their people in the distribution department to protect their political interests.

Without going into details, he said 17 former high-ranking government officials, a number of Wolesi Jirga members and influential figures had been involved in the illegal appointments.

As a result of their investigation, he said, they had prepared a list of the illegally appointed individuals and had presented the list with their findings to the president.

The MEC chief said their investigations found widespread corruption at the ID Cards Distribution Department’s three sections — recruitment, procurement and administration.

He said there was huge possibility of corruption in a $101 million contract awarded to GTR (Grand Technology Resources) in December, 2010 for the implementation of the ID cards project.

Dr. Behroz also said there were shortcomings in the Population Census Law allowing foreigners to easily obtain Afghanistan national identity cards, blaming the delay in distribution of the electronic ID cards on political differences.

The committee asked the government to bring drastic reforms to the ID cards distribution department and accelerate the distribution process.

The department concerned has so far said nothing about the MEC’s report.

There had been widespread protests in many provinces against the omission of words “Afghan” and “Islam” from the new biometric identity cards.

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