The Ministry of Finance says that, so far, over 89% of the development budget and over 93% of the ordinary budget has been spent by different state institutions.

According to the ministry, the overall budget increased to Afs411 billion ($5.2 billion) from Afs399 billion ($5 billion) after an addition to the mid-year budget.

From the total amount, Afs297 billion ($3.7 billion) has been allocated for ordinary budget and the remaining Afs115 billion ($1.4 billion) is for the development budget.

Figures by the ministry show that the national authority for disasters management has spent zero percent of its development budget while the Science

Academy, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and the Ministry of Counternarcotic have spent less than 50% of their development budget so far.

The figures show that eight out of a total of 54 departments have spent less than 50% of their development budget.  

The intuitions which have spent highest amount of their budget are: 

•    Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation 99%

•    Meshrano Jirga, the Upper House of Parliament 96%

•    Mines and Petroleum Ministry 96%

•    The Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission 95%

The institutions with less budget spending are:

•    The National Authority for Disaster Management 0%

•    Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan 39%

•    Ministry of Communication and Information Technology 43% 

•    Afghanistan National Standards Authority 46%

•    Counter-narcotics Ministry 48%

“So far, the budget spending in all budgetary units has been 89.1% but we still have four days to the end of the fiscal year,” Finance Ministry’s spokesman Shamroz Khan Masjidi said.

“We will achieve our goal in budget spending,” said Akbar Rustami, a spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture. “Last year, the Agriculture Ministry spent 95% of its development budget.”

Critics say efforts should be made to make effective use of the government’s budget in order to bring change to people’s life.

“The development budget has been spent over the past few years, but its effectiveness has been less,” economic affairs analyst Abdul Rasheed Janbaz said.