KABUL - The Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament on Monday said most government departments had so far used up to 10 percent of their development budget during the past five months of the ongoing fiscal year.
Afghanistan fiscal year begins from December 22 and the draft budget for the ongoing year was also approved by the parliament the same month.
Currently 56 budgetary units are under government’s framework. More than 168.6 billion afghanis has been set aside as development budget for the units this year.
Haji Mohammad Hashim Faryabi, a lawmaker from Faryab province, expressed concern over the failure to use development budget by government entities.
“Not utilising the budget is betrayal of the nation. Departments which failed to utilise their development funds should be interrogated,” the lawmaker stressed.
Saleh Mohammad Saljoqi from western Herat province, also asked the house administrative board to summon officials who could not use their development budgets properly.
Wolesi Jirga speaker Abdul Rauf Ibarhimi said:“The development budget is for improving livelihood of the nation, so it should be utilized in a timely manner. The documents we received show that most of government departments have used less than 10 percent of their budget.”
He said lawmakers should discharge their responsibility because they had the right to evaluate the performance of the government.
Ibrahimi asked the house commissions to professionally evaluate utilization of development budget of government departments and summon those having committed negligence in this regard. (Pajhwok)