KABUL (SW) – The recent revelation about the former government officials siphoning funds worth millions out of Afghanistan has angered the citizens.
In an interview with Salam Watandar, a number of citizens criticized the former officials, saying that the former officials had put the people in a difficult situation by looting and transferring national wealth abroad. They added that the only purpose o rule by the former officials seemed to make money and they did nothing in solving the problems of the people.
Rahmatullah, a Kabul-based citizen said all o the economic problems o today are because of the corruption committed by the former officials. “These ‘traitors’ have taken all the capital of Afghanistan out. We have not been paid for four months.”
Mohammad Aslam, another citizen of the country, said the former officials were only committed to self-service. “They had only come after the money in Afghanistan, grabbed it and left”.
On the other hand, Mohammad Ramin, another Kabul-based citizens, said that history would not forget the former officials and they will not have a place among the nation. “Currently, the poverty and misery that has befallen the people of Afghanistan is passing and passing; “But they will always be miserable, history will judge and they will be introduced to the people as the most Russian people.”
According to a Wall Street Journal review of public documents, interviews and other records, some officials who held top jobs during former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani’s tenure, which started in 2014, now are living in mansions along California’s coast. Abroad, clusters of former officials and lawmakers reside in major European cities, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, the records and interviews show.
The Journal sought to determine the whereabouts of dozens of Mr. Ghani’s cabinet officials, influential figures that made up his inner circle, and key lawmakers involved in security and foreign-policy matters. Most were found to have relocated overseas, often in countries where publicly available property and company records are limited.
Their experience contrasts sharply with the tens of thousands of Afghans struggling to pay their rent in America and scattered around the world in encampments and overcrowded housing.
Some former government officials held foreign citizenships and assets that allowed for smoother relocations in their properties outside Afghanistan, while others invested in new properties and moved their families abroad as the Taliban gained momentum, ultimately seizing control of Kabul last August. Many of the former Afghan officials said they left because they feared retaliation from the Taliban. Still, the handful of top-tier officials that stayed behind, including former President Hamid Karzai, have largely been left alone.
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