KABUL (TOLOnews): Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in its latest report that the United States has appropriated or otherwise made available $17.19 billion in assistance to Afghanistan and to Afghan refugees since the return of the Islamic Emirate.
SIGAR said $3.5 billion in assets were moved from the Afghan Central Bank to the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund (ARTF), and it counted this amount as part of the $17.19 billion total.
According to SIGAR’s report, these funds have been spent on humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and the cost of relocating and resettling Afghans who have worked with the US.
A part of the SIGAR report states: “$3.50 billion (was) transferred to the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund that is intended to protect macro financial stability on behalf of the Afghan people and could, in the long-term, include recapitalizing Afghanistan’s central bank, should the conditions materialize.”
Officials of the Islamic Emirate said the funds in the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund are part of the strategic reserves of the people of Afghanistan.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate, said: “The money of the people of Afghanistan, which has been seized and belongs to Afghanistan, and can never be considered as a favor by anyone and has not yet been made accessible to the Afghan people, should be freed as soon as possible.”
The deputy minister of Economy, Abdul Latif Nazari, said: “The money held in the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund is related to the Afghan people and is part of the strategic reserves of Afghanistan. No country has the right to consider and interpret it as its own.” A number of economic analysts said that including $3.5 billion from the Central Bank in SIGAR’s total of US aid is incorrect.
“The transfer of $3.5 billion from the blocked foreign currency reserves of Afghanistan by the US to the trust fund in Switzerland, reported in the sum of US government aid to the people and the reconstruction of the Afghan economy, I think is purely a mistake,” said Mir Shekib Mir, an economic analyst.
“Unfortunately, we have not seen any positive result today in terms of reducing poverty, reducing unemployment, and changing the level of purchasing power of the people in Afghanistan from the money that has entered Afghanistan,” said Seyar Quraishi, an economic analyst.
According to the numbers provided by SIGAR, $2.8 billion of this money has been spent on humanitarian and developmental aid for Afghanistan, and $10.89 billion has also been spent on the evacuation, resettlement, and hosting programs for Afghan refugees in the US.
