KABUL - Thousands of government positions are vacant; however, no efforts are seemingly being made to fill them with competent people.
Sources told TOLOnews that the number of vacant positions is around 50,000 posts and for unknown reasons the government is not calling for the positions to be filled.
Meanwhile, officials at the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD) said that they have made efforts to find out the number of vacant positions in government organizations. They added that other organizations are reluctant to cooperate in this regard.
"The average number of members of one family in Afghanistan is 7.5 people. If there are 10,000 vacant positions, or tens of thousands of positions, then one person [if employed] can support seven other people," said Ali Eftekhari, spokesman for the MoLSAMD.
The Director of the High Office of Anti-Corruption, Sayed Ghulam Hussain Fakhri, said that the existence of vacant positions will encourage unemployed youths to pay bribes or use their contacts to get jobs.
This comes at a time that a large number of educated youth are unemployed.
"I had a dream to serve my country, but unfortunately I am unemployed," said Najib Nurstani, an unemployed youth. He added that he graduated from a political science faculty as well as a military academy and can speak six foreign languages, but with all these qualifications he is still unemployed.
Figures provided by the MoLSAMD shows that 1.8 million people are unemployed in Afghanistan.
Experts believe that mounting insecurity and an economic crisis have led to this surge in unemployment. (Tolonews)