Pajhwok report helps enhance Kunduz agro revenue

KUNDUZ CITY (Pajhwok): After the release of a Pajhwok Afghan News report on massive embezzlement in the Agriculture Department by powerful individuals, staffers realized their duty and enhance the department’s revenue.

On December 4, Pajhwok published a report regarding the embezzlement of tens of millions of afghanis in the revenue of the Kunduz Agriculture Department.

Fund misappropriation becomes obvious, considering the revenue collected over the past three months and this last fiscal year.

Last fiscal year, about 12 million afghanis had been collected in agriculture revenue, over 33 million afs less than the revenue expected this year.

Local officials in Kunduz say after the release of the investigative report, employees of the department realised their duty and jacked up the revenue.

Maulvi Amanullah Hassan, director of agriculture, said after the release of the Pajhwok report, the department had stepped up efforts to enhance the revenue several times.

He hoped filing of such reports would help the cause of good governance and the sense of responsibility among government employees.

“We are grateful to Pajhwok Afghan News for preparing a comparative investigative report on the revenue of this office,” Hassan said.

He promised that no one would be allowed to embezzle government revenue, If found involved in corruption, perpetrators would be treated in accordance with the law and Sharia.

Director of Information and Culture Matiullah Rohani expressed his gratitude to Pajhwok for releasing the investigative report.

“The publication of this report is based on the truth. We support it and independent media has always tried to vent the voice of the people,” he commented.

Meanwhile, former agriculture director Abdul Hadi Qarlaq told Pajhwok Afghan News: “The revenue collected by new staff also includes ushr and other properties.”

Previously, he explained, these resources were not available to the department. That was why, he argued, the revenue had gone up.

But Maulvi Amanullah Hassan, the current director of Agriculture, said the money collected did not include ushr.

sa/mud