Around 1,400 Afghan Defense Ministry staff dismissed

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) - The Defense Ministry has sacked 1,394 employees, including 946 officers as part of an anti-corruption drive since September 2016, the head of a government commission announced in the capital Kabul Tuesday.

The country’s security institutions, including the ministries of defense and interior are notorious for hosting ghost soldiers and employees apart from an appalling culture of nepotism, and political and ethnic patronage.

Gen. Helaluddin Helal, chairman of the Special Anti-Corruption and Transparency Commission, told journalists in Kabul the Defense Ministry employees had been dismissed from their posts after they were found guilty of corruption and breaching the military code.

Most of the sacked officials were from the ministry’s procurement section.

“The dossier of those dismissed from posts have been sent to the judiciary; new people have been employed at the vacant posts, and they are doing good job,” Helal said, adding the drive would continue.

As part of the drive against corruption, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has been personally overlooking all major procurement deals involving the Kabul government.

Ghani heads the National Procurement Commission, which claims to have saved the national exchequer up to $200 million due to smart management and a transparent procurement process.

Nazeer Ahmadzai, deputy speaker of the Wolesi Jirga (lower house), told Anadolu Agency the president recently assured a parliamentary delegation that all illegal appointments in the country’s security sector would be canceled.