The findings of the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) reveal that 588 posts have remained vacant in the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) since April 2018. 

The watchdog says the vacant positions make 27 percent of its overall structure of the ministry in Kabul and other provinces. 

The report says recruitment by far has been one of the most critical areas of all reform programs in Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan’s Interim National Development Strategy defines merit-based recruitment of Grades 2 and above and monitoring the ministerial appointments of the Grades 3 and lower as one of the core tasks to be done through reforms,” the report said.

The report says Afghanistan’s 2008 National Development Strategy can be another good example that sets the year 2011 as the date by which all Civil Servant recruitments of the Government should be filled through merit-based appointments.

MEC said that the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has also failed to implement 91 recommendations.

“In terms of reforms, the relevant ministry has not any type of gains,” said Maiwand Rouhani, the head of MEC.

“At that time, 19 posts were being run by the caretakers. We offered our recommendations, but this did not happen. Now the figure has increased to 31 posts. 31 posts of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum are being run by caretakers in Kabul and some provinces,” said Idris Hashemi, MEC researcher. 

According to MEC, 31 key posts ran under the acting chiefs for the past three years. 

“The high number of ‘acting’ positions is another major problem in MoMP, the report says, adding that this problem was reflected in 2018 when MEC released one of its reports, indicating that at that time MoMP had 19 directorates led by acting positions.

The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said that 31 important posts have been announced and that a number of key recommendations by MEC have been implemented.

Abdul Qadir Mutfi, the MoMP spokesman, said the vacant positions will be announced for free competition.

“Recently, we have not made any illegal appointments. We thank MEC for its recommendations and we hope that they strengthen their professional treatment and use precision in releasing figures,” Mutfi said.