KABUL - Due to prevalent corruption work on more than 500 projects belonging to the Ministry of Edcuation (MoE) has come to a halt, said the acting education minister on Sunday.
Asadullah Hanif Balkhi, the acting education minister, on Saturday spoke at a conference named ‘Civic Accountability, Public Service Delivery Reform and Anti-Corruption Efforts’ organized by the Democracy International (DI) here.
He said currently work on 500 schools’ construction projects---despite their money was provided---had been at standstill across the country.
He said the MoE investigations had found rampant corruption in the projects, claiming the amounts allotted for the projects had been embezzled by his predecessors.
Balkhi received the Wolesi Jirga’s vote of confidence in April, 2015 for the slot of education minister. However, he was impeached by the house in November, 2016 for failing to spend 70 percent of his ministry’s development annual budget. Balkhi is currently continuing his job as acting education minister.
He said a list of the halted projects had been prepared and submitted to the president.
For completion of work on the mentioned projects, $9 million was needed and the MoE had many times asked the Ministry of Finance for it; however, there was no positive response received in this regard, he concluded. (Pajhwok)