A three-year-old dossier on staggering corruption in Hairatan port and Nangarhar customs, estimated to run into billions of Afs, is waiting to be investigated.
Azizullah Ludin, former head of the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption (HOOAC) says he received a complaint about the huge corruption in Nangarhar custom and the dry port of Hairatan for the first time in 2010.
Ludin says he sent a joint investigative team comprising representatives from the Ministry of Finance, HOOAC, Supreme Audit Office (SAO), National Security Department and Attorney General Office (AGO) Nangarhar.
They found trucks were going through customs without paying duty. “Financially the government had lost 839 million Afs (14 million USD) meant for the public purse,” Ludin tells Killid in an interview.
The team went to Hairatan port as well, and calculated 3.5 billion Afs (60 million USD) had been embezzled. “The problem in Hairatan was the same as in Nangarhar custom. Trucks were clearing customs without paying tax,” says Ludin.
He says that he himself had signed the dossier, and forwarded it to the AGO but nothing further has been heard about the files.
Last year on May 13, Hazarat Omar Zakhilwal, economic advisor to President Ashraf Ghani and acting Minister of Finance accused “some” Members of Parliament (MPs) of not paying customs duties. “Some of the MPs are involved in trade of flour, oil and illegal wine. They do not pay customs duties, and hence government earnings have reduced.”
SOA confirms Ludin’s allegations of corruption in customs. Documents shared with Killid from SOA show that former president Hamid Karzai had ordered that a committee be set up to probe corruption, and he be kept apprised of its findings.
Mohammad Hashem Delawar, the head of the department of revenue investigation in SOA says they sent a representative to Nangarhar as part of the HOOAC-led joint delegation constituted under the presidential decree.
Delawar says the delegation found 14,677 trucks had cleared customs without paying duties. “The delegation has estimated the losses at 839,244,795 Afs (14,465,824 USD),” he says.
SOA, however, did not send a representative in the delegation that inspected Hairatan port.
Delawar claims it was not kept informed of progress in the case, a charge that is denied by HOOAC.
Wahidullah Zahed, the head of complaints, receipts and information at HOOAC says while the dossier was forwarded to the AGO in 2012, “one part of the case has been sent to the Supreme Audit Office for further work four months ago.” According to him, the AGO has shared some aspects of the case with HOOAC but the case is far from completed.
Ludin presented copies of the dossiers to the deputy head of the parliamentary justice and judicial commission Mohammad Sarwar Osmani but the MPs have not yet taken up the case.
Osmani says the Attorney General (AG) was summoned to parliament on this and other cases. He, however, failed to turn up and is “continuing his job illegally,” he alleges.
Rubbish the claims
Killid made several attempts to talk to officials in the AGO on the Nangarhar customs and Hairatan port cases but no one was willing. However, Ehsanullah Kamawi, head of Nangarhar customs, and Najib, head of Hairatan port both obliged, only to dismiss the allegations.
Ehsanullah claims Ludin had an axe to grind with the minister of finance and leveled false allegations. “The customs office was under construction; taxes were being collected inside. Only trucks loaded with cement were taxed outside customs, and hence they started yelling that there is problem in the counting of trucks entering and exiting customs,” says Ehsanullah.
According to him, following the allegations by the HOOAC many teams have visited customs but found no evidence of trucks going through without paying customs duty.
Meanwhile, Najibullah says following media reports of corruption in Hairatan port Ludin had visited Balkh and distributed “good performance” letters to officials. Ludin, he says, said the HOOAC had made a mistake and the allegations of embezzlement were a mistake.
Najibullah claims the HOOAC delegation probing corruption found that loss of revenue was calculated in an account that had a tax exemption form. However, this flies in the face of documents shown to Killid including an investigation report by a 4-member team that found truth in the allegations of corruption in Nangarhar customs and Hairatan port.
Back and forth
Authorities in the Ministry of Finance rubbish the allegations. Abdul Qader Jailani, the spokesperson, accuses HOOAC of falsifying documents to prove corruption in the ministry. “If there is any such corruption we will support legal action. The AGO should come forward so that those involved are punished,” he says.
On being reminded that a representative from the Ministry of Finance was part of the probe team, and had signed the report submitted to the HOOAC, the ministry’s spokesperson changed his tune. He says that if the documents are authentic and have been confirmed by the AGO then the Ministry of finance would appeal for an early decision by a court against the accused people.
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