We can't Rebuild Afghanistan with Corruption

I remember after the fall of the Taliban back in 2002, I started to work with 2 national NGOs in Kabul Afghanistan. I soon got a job as the main brain of the organization because of English language skills and I was the only one who could receive the documents from the donor agencies to interpret and translate them for the whole organization. I was the person to develop project proposals for the organization and it was the director to sign on the first page and send it to donors for funding. Most of my project proposals were funded by different donor agencies in Afghanistan. My project proposals raised lots of funds for the organizations to construct school buildings, bridges, protection walls and to construct and reconstruct roads in remote areas of Afghanistan. I was paid a small amount of monthly salary but half of the budget was going to the pockets of the director of the two organizations. What was really sad that most of the school buildings were proposed by one a half meter foundation under the ground but in reality the NGO was not making those foundations under the ground and the organization was saving the money for the family of the director. There was a plan for potable water wells for the children at school but the director was saying the contractor not to dig the water wells too deep because it will take lots of money but instead make a hole from river inside the well which was only 1 meter deep to bring the water inside the well to save money. But I don't know how many children might have got sick to drink from the river water, thinking that it is a pure drinking water !

Ninety percent of the projects were only funded to organizations which could bribe one of the main decision maker person in the donor agency.  Sixty percent of the bills and proofs for the final reports were fake and they were made inside those organizations. It was a great pity to see that people were mentally ill doing wrong things and you can't stop them because if you say something, they will fire you! Most of the projects were funded by Embassy of Japan for school building constructions or protection walls and bridges. Some were funded by Caritas Germany. Some of other were funded by a subcontractor of USAID called MSH.

WFP was also funding food for some projects because of the seven consecutive years of drought in Afghanistan. The wheat and other food staff were imported from foreign countries which was dumping the local production and making the farmers not to use their cultivation lands because the price was coming down at once and the cultivation of grains were not worthy of its harvest and would not cover its expenses due to the low price in the market.

Without bribing the donor agencies or some kind of their agents, there was not organization who could get their projects funded. There was only another way to get the projects funded and that was to have a Minister recommendation or having a member of the family of the government authorities in the NGO as a key decision maker.

Only the projects were funded in Afghanistan which was according to the goals and objectives of the donor agencies. The projects which were really needed for Afghanistan were never funded. There was no infrastructural projects funded in Afghanistan by donors. For example Afghanistan has got huge amount of water resources but the electricity was imported from another country instead of funding projects which could produce electricity inside the country. Streets are paved with so low quality asphalt that after 1 year, all of them were almost destroyed again.

Canalization for the cities were never funded as an infrastructural project. The needs of the people were never considered as the main bottle neck of the decision making process for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Afghanistan.

There were no standards considered for the projects. For example streets are constructed without signboards, without pedestrians' sidewalks, without appropriate side drainage.

Everything is a mess in that country and always the wrong guys sit in the top position to make the wrong decisions about the country and the future of its population.  

There is no hope for the future of Afghanistan considering all these visible facts from the daily observations.

There is no plan and no monitoring involved in the projects. Everybody pays and lets the person in charge of the control go without looking at the main progress of the project.

Ater 13 years, that is not a single Ministry in the cabinet with a practical 5 years plan for the country. The government still doubt whether it should call the Taliban an enemy or as a bother despite the fact that they murder everyday few soldiers and few civilians.

Relationship and tribe matters a lot. If you are a Pashtun, then you are welcomed everywhere, other tribes are not welcomed. If you know the Minister, then you can do what you want, otherwise you con not get your simple work done or you can not get a signature without paying bribe.

Considering all these issues, can we really hope that Afghanistan will one day stand by its own? 

Economic Debate of ACCI with Presidential Election Candidates مناظره ای اقتصادی اتاق های تجارت افغانستان با نامزدان ریاست جمهوری

The Economic debate of Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Afghanistan (ACCI). Yes I remember when I was in Kabul in 2009 and worked with the ACCI as an Adviser. I was the person who initiated this idea and created this project for the ACCI and I wrote a proposal to IRI (Republican Party of USA in Kabul). Mr. Majumdar was the representative of IRI in that time who was supporting Ashraf Ghani and wanted to make him more famous in Afghanistan by conducting an economic camping for him. They funded that project 42000 USD and they gave that money directly to me.

When Haqjo (CEO of ACCI) got to know that I have received the money, he sent his financial officer, an old corrupt man who would never have to be trusted and told him to get the money from me.

I went to Haqjo and told him are you asking me to give this money to him?

Yes, he said.

I gave him the cash and next day Haqjo's deputy Mr. Atiq Nasratullah (COO) with his other deputy Mr. Tawfiq Delawari invited me to Atiq's office and they told me "Do you know that an adviser does not have any responsibility and any executive authority and you are out of that project. I said ok. No problem. They took the money and spent it as they wished. They distributed some of the fund to the Media to promote Haqjo on the news, without looking at the budget line.

They never gave me a chance to contribute in the implementation. When it came to the hard work of collecting the Economic Programs of the candidates, it was only me who could do that. I went to the publishing firm and stayed there even until mid night.

After the project was completed. There was no evidence and documents to prove that all the money was spent according to the proposed budget line.

I worked 2 days on final report to prepare some bills for the IRI and I collected some friends stamps and spent almost 2000 USD to make the final report for the IRI to pay the remaining 10000 USD.

They actually spent half of the money and half of that money was remaining. Haqjo asked me that now that money is ours and we need to share it. I told him that I do not need that money. Only give some of it to your deputy Atiq because otherwise he will make problems for you. Only pay me what I have spent on the final reports because I have asked many times your finance manager and he was not paying me that money.

He said ok but he never paid. He took all the remaining money and spent it on his journey to USA to visit his in-laws and most probably he bought some presents for them. That is how all the AID projects for Afghanistan work. The money goes to a person or to a family through corrupt deals.

That is how a project works in Afghanistan and now after 5 years, ACCI has again used my proposal to get funding from Harakat.

When I read the BBC news about the economic debate of the ACCI, I got to know that it is my project.

Here is the proposal for your information:

50 Points about Quality of Education in Afghanistan پنجاه نکته در مورد کیفیت تعلیم و تربیه در افغانستان