An employee of the passport department in the southeastern province of Logar has escaped with one million Afs of revenue collected from passport applicants.

Provincial security officials said that at least 10 perpetrators have been arrested in connection with the case.

According to the Logar department of information and culture, the individual who escaped two weeks ago with the money from passport applicants is named Farhad.

He was working in the biometric section of the department, said Rafiullah Samim, head of the provincial department of information and culture.

“An employee of the Logar passport department, who is named Farhad, has stolen between 800,000 to 1,000,000 Afs by forging fake banking slips for the applicants,” he said.

Farhad was making fake banking slips for the applicants and was receiving money himself instead of paying it back to the bank, Samim said.

The passport applicants in Logar called on the government to hold the perpetrator to account.

“This person should be brought to justice. He has destroyed the documents of a lot of people. The passport distribution has been halted,” said Shir Mohammad, a passport applicant.

At least 10 perpetrators have been arrested in connection with the case, said Ahmadullah Anas, head of the provincial department of security.

“We have detained ten people who were involved in this crime with him (Farhad). We have detained the driver (of Farhad) as well,” said Ahmadullah Anas, head of provincial department of security.

This comes as citizens continue to complain over the slow process of passport-issuing.

Following the fall of the former government, hundreds of thousands of citizens seeking to leave the country rushed into the passport departments across the country.

The citizens called on the government to facilitate the passport-issuing process.