KABUL (Pajhwok): Five governors on Saturday said the Cabinet, in compliance with directives from President Ashraf Ghani, had decided to replace acting officials, including provincial governors, until the end of this ongoing fiscal year.
Under the presidential directives, from now on provincial governors on their turn would attend Cabinet meetings and individually speak about their priorities and problems and then the Cabinet would make decisions accordingly.
The governors of Kunar, Nangarhar, Logar, Laghman and Badakhshan provinces on Saturday told a joint press conference that the Cabinet during its meeting two days ago made decisions about problems in 17 provinces after hearing proposals from the governors.
Kunar governor Wahidullah Kalimzai said despite a high level of joblessness in provinces, a large number of provinces and districts were being run by acting officials, something he said had created serious problems.
He said the Cabinet had decided to resolve the issue of acting officials by the end of the fiscal year. “President Ghani has assigned his special representative on good governance and reforms Ahmad Zia Massoud to resolve the issue of acting officials and fill vacant posts in cooperation with the Administrative Reform Commission and the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG),” the Kunar governor said.
Logar governor Halim Fidai said the Cabinet would approve in the near future IDLG’s new policy which would empower governors. He expressed his concern about the lack of coordination among security forces, local governments and the central government. “This issue has been resolved to some extent with the establishment of the Tawhid information centre at the Presidential Palace,” he said.
The governor said the president through the Tawhid centre used to contact provincial civil and military officials via video conferences and issue them necessary directives. Fidai praised the Cabinet for taking important decisions about reconstruction of roads and facilitating hospitals in provinces.
Nangarhar governor Salim Khan Kunduzi said the Cabinet had decided that governors and the ministers concerned would evaluate the performance of provincial departments after every six months.
He said the Cabinet decided that governors would be given a small amount of development budget for resolving small issues and had directed measures for construction of district headquarters buildings and their equipment.
Laghman governor Abdul Jabbar Naeemi said the Cabinet directed the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs to pay strong attention to mosques and seminaries in order not to be misused.
He said the Cabinet meeting stressed uniform development and directed the governors to report analysis of security situation in their provinces to the central government every month.
Calling land-grab a serious issue in provinces, Badakhshan governor Ahamd Faisal Begzad said the Cabinet directed provincial governors to reclaim the usurped land in cooperation with the authority concerned.
The governors insisted on improvement in the security situation and asked the government to come up with a clear definition for enemies and foes. They said every one picking up gun against the government was enemy and should be resisted.
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