Afghanistan Times
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Millions of dollars have been illegally transferred throughout Hamid Karzai International Airport without being tracked by the cash counting track machines. A large amount of this money is believed to be earned illegally such as opium smuggling and administrative corruption. The government neither provided information about the transformation of money from the country nor held the perpetrators accountable so far. The sarcastic circle involved in the transformation of money from the airport must include the government figures as well because it is beyond believing that such amount of money is being extracted from the country but the perpetrators are still walking free. Unfortunately, corruption has been the biggest challenge for the Afghan government to overcome besides insecurity amid the feeble economical system that pushes the country on the top of the world’s poorest countries. The transformation of money was revealed by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) but similar cases of corruption have also repeatedly occurred in the past. The government not only failed to prevent it but couldn’t hold the perpetrators accountable. The US has installed the cash counting machines to track the serial number of the money transferring from Hamid Karzai Airport. But reports of the SIGAR showed that the machines have not been properly used for tracking the money at the VIP terminals of the airport. Afghanistan itself lies on the international community’s donation to fund its security forces, financial, judicial and health systems. The transformation of such amount of money further affects the almost feeble economy of the country. It also increases the mistrust of the people in the government as over 70 percent of the Afghan population lives under the poverty line. The United Nations and International Community have donated the money for the sake of the Afghan people, democracy and reconstruction of the country. The people have the rights to question the government about the usage of the money- why – how- and where was the money gone. But some opportunist figures in the government have misused their authority to take the flows of the money illegally. In many cases, they have escaped the country and sought asylum in western countries despite having unsolved-cases in the Attorney General Office. In the meanwhile, we are engaged in a relentless war that has taken the lives of thousands of Afghans and that such issues of corruption affect the morale of our brave Afghan security forces. To counter the corruption and transformation of the money, the government should enforce the law equally and hold the corrupted officials accountable. And in some cases, the government is unable to prosecute the corrupted officials, at least sharing their names with people, so the Afghans get to recognize their leaders.
