Lawmakers have said that the allocation of funds to budgetary units in the national budget is one of the main issues that have delayed the approval of the document by the Afghan parliament.
As an instance, lawmakers said the government has removed the operation office of the president (the Operation and Support Office of the President for National Development) from the third budget draft, but the High Council for National Reconciliation and the Afghanistan Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority remain as new budgetary units while they don’t have Parliament’s consent for their allocations.
The prediction budget for the reconciliation council is 766 million Afs while the fuel regulatory authority’s proposed fund is 15 million Afs, according to MPs.
Lawmakers have said there are also serious questions about the legal status of some of the budgetary units.
“Creating any budgetary unit is supposed to be among the authorities of the Wolesi Jirga,” said Mohammad Keberzani, member of the finance and budget committee of the parliament.
The legislators have also questioned “uncertainty” in activities of some budgetary units, including the National Examination Authority and Access to Information Commission.
The government has allocated 215 million Afs for National Examination Authority, 123 million Afs for Access to Information Commission.
“The budgetary units will not be approved unless they are official and legitimate,” said MP Abdul Aziz Hakimi.
“We will do our assessments. We will reject if it something contradicts the system,” said Abdul Sattar Hussaini, an MP from Farah.
Recently, the government merged the ministry of public works with the ministry of transportation and the independent national civil aviation and railway authority, but they have been considered as separate budgetary units in the third budget draft, something that has sparked criticism by the parliament.
Moreover, the Ministry of Energy and Water has been divided into the independent authorities of water management and energy, but the lawmakers said they are working on the budget of the authorities under its previous structure.
“We want to bring more changes so that the people’s demands are met,” said Farida Bekzad, an MP from Badghis.