Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) on Wednesday blamed the Afghan government for trying to monopolize foreign funds it receives from the international community to fight COVID-19.
The IWA said that such a move will lead to further expansion of mistrust between the government and the donors.
“Monopolization in the spending of the aid by the international community in the fight against the coronavirus creates severe vulnerabilities and it removes the trust,” said Sayed Ekram Afzali, the head of the IWA.
Meanwhile, a number of lawmakers in the parliament have said that the existence of corruption in the government institutions is a very big factor in whether or not the international community will channel funds for Afghanistan through the government.
“All over the world the aid is spent through institutions such as WHO and USAID, these institutions never provide direct assistance to a government,” said Mir Haidar Afzali, a member of parliament.
“The international community wants to work through a system, not through an individual, but the Arg (Presidential Palace), wants to work individually; because of this, the international community shows unwillingness,” said Gul Rahman Hamdard, a member of parliament.
The Afghan government says that a lot of aid has been provided to Afghanistan to fight COVID-19, and that the government is trying to allocate the assistance in an effective and systematic way.
“All efforts of the Afghan government are focused on coordinating the aid. We have obtained massive support from the international community in the fight against the coronavirus,” said Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman to President Ashraf Ghani. (this was in Farsi? If not, please let me know)
Following the outbreak of the coronavirus in Afghanistan, the EU provided 117 million euros to Afghanistan, the World Bank provided $100.4 million and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided $40 million.