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KABUL (SW) – Evidence gathered by Salam Watandar indicates certain officials at the finance ministry have leased and rented more than hundreds of acres of government land, several markets and dozens of government stores in clear violation of the "Procurement Law, Property Procedures and Finance Act".
The evidence suggests Mohammad Ali Zarif Stankzai, the head of the Ministry of Finance's State Property Office, Abdullah, director Contracts, Zadran, supervisor of the Contracts, Sayed Masehullah, manager Contracts, Ruhollah Haq Parast, director of Registration and Filing and Chief Operating Officer State Property, and Mohammad Ajan Sarboland, director Utilization, are involved in this.
Some of the evidence suggests that while two bidders were declared winners in bidding for shops in the Pashtany Bank's lower-tier suburban part valued at 1 million 300,000 afghanis, but, head of the Ministry of Finance's State Property Office, terminated the contract and handed over the shops to someone else against meager amount.
Evidence shows that about 179 government properties nationwide were disputed, out of which only four have been resolved, with the rest left untouched.
Credible sources told SW, the defendants have been referred to the prosecutor general's office.
Luxury hotels on government land
The documents suggest that over 40 acres of farmer’s co-operative property, luxury hotels and fuel stations have been built on the airport road.
Copies of contracts and first-round bidding documents, with hotels and tanks, were not made available to the review panel.
It is further stated that the aforementioned leases were rented out to the hotel owners as empty land, but now that the state of the property has changed, it is required under the Procurement Act that the bidding should take place through public notice accordingly.
But, the abovementioned contracts are contrary to the Principles, contrary to the Property Act, contrary to the Procurement Law, and contrary to Article II of the Law on Finance and Public Expenditure and for the Purpose of Competent Authority for a period of five years. According to the documents, these extrajudicial actions have been carried out since 2013 and "huge amounts of money not specified in the documents have been lost due to deals with the contractors."
Eliminate Volunteer Companies
In addition, the documents show that the head of the Ministry of Finance's State Property Office, director Contracts, , supervisor of the Contracts, manager Contracts, director of Registration and Filing and Chief Operating Officer State Property and director Utilization collaborated to give away dozens of state-owned shops and markets
On low rent without considering the rules and regulations.
Sources reveal that the head of the Ministry of Finance's State Property Office has removed a number of bidders from the renting process of the ‘Barakat Market’ after agreeing to lease the market, which is located in the first district of Kabul. Later, the Wolesi Jirga (lower house)’s finance and budget committee wrote a letter to the State Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs stating that business executives who have been removed from the Barakat Market’s bidding process should be added back to the procurement process.
A letter from the State Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to Finance Ministry's Directorate-General for Property has said that the Ministry of Finance was obliged to re-auction Barakat Market after adding the protesting bidders removed in the first place.
The documents have details of a number of similar instances when state-owned property is leased and rented away in clear violation of the rules.
Negligence in restoring usurped lands
According to the documents, hundreds of acres of government land in Kabul, Faryab, Balkh, Herat, Parwan, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Paktia, Nimroz and Jawzjan provinces are occupied by the usurpers and so far the Ministry of Finance has not taken any action.
According to the documents, about 142 acres of land and one other patch of land are not mentioned in Kabul, a deep well in the third Parwan of Kabul, 5 shops in the first district of Kabul, a pumping station in Kunar province, 5 plots in Herat, a government building in Herat, 5 shops in Herat and 6 rooms in Parwan province, a government building in Faryab, a government complex in Balkh and a hotel in Herat have been grabbed by individuals with no information.
This has eventually led to losses and drop in revenue collection.
Ignore the corruption of millions
Other evidence suggests that telecom firms such as MTN, Roshan, a contractor in Kabul’s Pul-e-Charkhi area, a man named Rahmatullah, and owners of dozens of shops in Sarobi district are debtors, owing millions in debt for not paying rent.
Rahmatullah, son of Suleiman, tops the list with 2,885,138 afghanis, Kabul Sarubi district shoppers about 15 million afghanis, MTN Telecommunication Company 4,166,818 afghanis.
The Ministry of Finance's Internal Investigation Department, after criticizing the work of the Supreme Audit Office responsible for investigating and writing, wrote that officials during their investigations were suspicious of all these unlawful actions by Mohammad Ali Zarif Stankzai, the head of the Ministry of Finance's State Property Office, Abdullah, director Contracts, Zadran, supervisor of the Contracts, Sayed Masehullah, manager Contracts, Ruhollah Haq Parast, director of Registration and Filing and Chief Operating Officer State Property, and Mohammad Ajan Sarboland, director Utilization, are involved in this.
At the end of its report, the Internal Audit Department of the Ministry of Finance wrote that the matter should be sent to judicial bodies for further investigation.
Jamshid Rasouli, a spokesman for the Attorney General's office, also said that a case has been filed by the Ministry of Finance regarding corruption and the actions of public administration officials. According to Rasouli, the case of the employees of the General Directorate of State Property has been submitted to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and, after reviewing the evidence, the agency would decide whether the prosecution will work on it or forward it to the relevant authority for further investigation.
We wanted to have the views of former employees of the General Directorate of State Property, but to no avail.
But, the Supreme Audit Office said Mohammad Ali Zarif Stankzai was appointed to the office on the basis of President Ashraf Ghani's decree and is currently acting head of its central budget department.
Fazel Aaram, a spokesman for the Supreme Bureau of Investigation, told SW that Stankzi denied all the allegations and said that if such allegations were true, they should be followed up by legal authorities.
Until the end of 2018, the General Directorate of State Property was related to the Ministry of Finance and this corruption case has remained in place since then, but now the Department has been separated from the Ministry and merged with the with the Ministry of Urban Development and Land. It is noteworthy that the case of corruption in the General Directorate of Real Estate began when the Department was under the umbrella of the Ministry of Urban Development.
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