US: Afghanistan among 69 countries not fiscally transparent

Kabul (ToloNews): Afghanistan is among 69 countries that did not meet the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency, the US Department of State said in the 2022 Fiscal Transparency Report.
The report said that since August 2021, “no entity has taken actions to ensure Afghanistan is meeting minimum requirements of fiscal transparency.”
“No entity has published an executive budget proposal or end-of-year report within a reasonable period. Without a budget, there was no reliable breakdown of expenditures to support executive offices. The budgets of the Taliban’s so-called ‘military’ and ‘intelligence services’ were not made public,” the report said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance denied the report, saying that it was made based on unconfirmed reports.
The MoF spokesman Ahmad Wali Haqmal said that the government institutions have shared their reports of activities with the people and dozens of people have been detained on charges of corruption at the customs offices.
“We have announced that we are ready to cooperate with all of the organizations which are working for transparency and corruption. Unfortunately, no one has been ready to do so. This report is made without any actual presence in our department. This is their guess from there (the US),” he said.
Economists gave various opinions regarding the report.
“Some of the commodities are crossing customs unofficially—in fact, the cash is being poured into someone else’s pocket,’ said Sayed Masoud, an economist.
“Lack of transparency can cause huge damages to the government in Afghanistan,” said Shakir Yaqobi, an economist.
The report of the US State department covered more than 140 countries and indicated that 72 met the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency.
The report suggested that the Islamic Emirate publish timely and complete budget information and ensure that actual revenues and expenditures correspond to published data.