KABUL (SW) – The Wolesi Jirga (lower house) summoned officials from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, and the Ministry of Water and Electricity over utilization of less than 60 per cent of the development budgets.
Syed Hameedullah, director admin and finance at the MoE, told the house the under-utilization of the budget was caused by delay in payments by donors, insecurity, property issues and lack of capacity among private contractors.
The MoE had $ 183 million worth of budget for the year 2018, however $ 29 million was declared unusable for various reasons. The education ministry has utilized only 42 per cent of the budget. He added the MoE is faced with lack of property, schools and dearth of database hindering proper utilization of the budget.
The caretaker minister for MoWP, Mohammad Gul Khilmi, told the house the reasons why this ministry failed to properly utilize the budget were the ragging insecurity an certain projects for which the ministry is not ready technically. He cited one example of a solar power project for which technical survey has not been done yet.
Syed Mohibullah Rabbani, director admin and finance for the MoMP, said on his term that the complicated technicalities of certain projects and lingering procurement projects are causing impediments in the utilization of the budget. He added this ministry could not spent the budget on five major projects.
Speaker of the house, Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, criticized the MoE, MoWP and the MoMP for not properly utilizing their development budgets. He acknowledged the lack of professional capabilities, however, he criticized these ministries for not selecting quality private partners. He said these private firms are not committed to timely implement projects.
ENDS
