Some Wolesi Jirga members on Saturday say that personal preference are part of the mid-year’s budget draft and until these problems are not settled the lawmakers may not approved the draft.
Earlier, Wolesi Jirga rejected the mid-year draft budget over unspecified funding sources for the presidential election, allocation of funds for two new entities and reduction in budget for 154 development projects.
In the beginning of the fiscal year, 399 billion Afghanis were set aside as general and development expenses in the budget plan but an increase of 24.9 billion Afghanis had been made in the mid-year draft budget.
Allah Gul Mujahid, a lawmaker from Kabul province, said multiple problems existed in the draft budget.
He stresses the existing problems should be resolved in the draft budget to get the document approved.
He said the budget belonged to the nation, not government and termed the allocation of 700 million Afghanis for the newly made State Ministry for Peace unjust.
Mujahid said the High Peace Council spent $220 million on peace but has not achievement anything.
In early session, Mohammad Azim Mohsini, head of the finance and budgetary commission, said: “In the mid-year draft budget, five departments have extra organizations while the development budget is reduced. The budget of some units is decreased without any coordination with them and more money is considered for the department of president’s protection and VIP figures,” he added.
The draft budget also considered funds for departments which have recently been created but the parliament was yet to approve that, he said.
“The funding sources of the presidential election are unspecified which is another reason the mid-year draft budget should be rejected,” he added.
Haleema Sadaf Karimi, a lawmaker from Jawzjan province, said the draft budget did not reflect the interest of the masses and said personal preferences had been embodied in the draft.
She criticized drawing of funds from education, salaries of teachers, stationary and others and said if the Ministry of Finance reform the budget the house will approve.
Zahid Hamdard, deputy finance minister, said the budget of some institutions had been reduced due to bad performance of their officials because they were unable to spend their development budget in the past six months.
