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Some 800m Afs embezzled in emergency food programs
AT News
KABUL: The government plans to launch the Dastarkhan-e-Melli (DM) to help the vulnerable and destitute. Prior to this, two similar programs were launched during the Corona virus-related quarantine: The first program distributed wheat to poor people and the second one provided bread to the, but both of them failed because of a widespread corruption.
Some 800 million Afs was embezzled in the two programs.
Kabul Mayor Dawood Soltanzoy was praised by President Ghani despite corruption and embezzlement in the assistance program. The program was run with the financial assistance from the World Bank.
The DM program is to cost 244 million dollars in two rounds: The first round will cost 86 million dollars that covers 1.67 families in 123 districts of the country.
The second round will cost 158 million dollars and is supposed to cover 2.5 million families in 235 districts providing them with flour, cooking oil, rice and washing liquid.
The program is expected to be better from the previous ones, but has still concerns for implementation as there is not a certain mechanism to identify real vulnerable families.
The program will be run by local councils and organizations who are serving in social affairs as people trust them more than the government.
President Ghani said in the inaugural of the DM program that 90 per cent of Afghans live under the line of poverty.
The line of poverty shows the least income for life in a society and the countries where people’s income is less than two dollars, they live under the line of poverty.
38 per cent of people were under the line of poverty in the last days of Hamid Karzai’s government in 2014, while it jumped to 52 per cent last year.
The Corona virus and lockdown helped the line of poverty to jump more in the past five months.
Now, 18 million people lack job, according to fresh data.
