Lawmakers in the Wolesi Jirga, the Lower House of Parliament, on Monday summoned ministers of justice and counter-narcotics to ask them about the spending of their development budgets.

The ministers survived no-confidence vote from lawmakers. Lawmakers are expected to summon all those ministers who have failed to spend less than 70 percent of their development budgets.

“The ministry of justice would have spent almost 84 percent of its development budget if the construction of its new building had not faced opposition from the World Bank,” Justice Minister Abdul Basir Anwar said.

“We transferred all projects to Ministry of Urban Development and Housing on the basis of a resolution, but some of the projects were returned to the relevant ministries after the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing could not managed to implement the projects because of their large numbers,” said Salamat Azimi, Minister of Urban Development and Housing. 

Meanwhile, some MPs said the spending of the development budget is hindered by donors and the Ministry of Finance.

“You should summon those who are responsible and who are making barriers on the way of spending of development budget,” said Qais Hassan, an MP.

“Main responsibility lies with the Ministry of Finance and donors who hinder spending of development budget,” said MP Bashir Ahmad Tahyanj.

This comes after the Ministry of Finance said on December 19 that the balance of development budget spending by government’s budgetary units has surpassed almost 90 percent this year, which shows a 23 percent increase compared to the same period a year ago.

The Finance Ministry has allocated AFs 399 billion for the 1398 fiscal year’s budget, 69 percent of which has been allocated for the standard budget while the remaining 39 percent has been allocated for the development budget.

According to the ministry, from the AFs 399 billion, AFs 275 billion will be allocated to the standard budget and the remainder will be put aside for the development budget.