The government is losing millions of dollars on fuel issued to officials for the use of vehicles because of a failure to introduce amendments in 40-year-old rules.
Afghanistan National Standards Authority (ANSA) confirms the perquisite of vehicle fuel for government officials including the military is being abused. There has been no change in the rules since the approval by the cabinet of the perquisite in 1978.
Under rules of the Ministry of Finance all grade two employees are eligible to use government vehicles. An investigation by Killid reveals senior officials have requested an increase in fuel quota but the presidential office has not responded.
Dawlat Waziri, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence (MoD), says the entitlement is calculated on the basis of distance travelled, and issued only after mileage has been rechecked and verified on the odometre (gauge that shows the distance travelled). Earlier military personnel were entitled to a quota.
MoD deputy spokesperson Mohammad Radmanesh claims there is no misappropriation of either fuel or lubricants for vehicles in the ministry.
Meanwhile, Najib Danesh, acting spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior Affairs, says high-level officials including government ministers who are entitled to a vehicle are eligible to get 300 litres of fuel a month. Lubricants too are distributed.
But Hekmatullah Qawanch, Ministry of Transport spokesperson, says distribution of fuel and lubricants was calculated on the basis of Ministry of Finance (MoF) regulations.
Jalil Sultani, the spokesperson for Kabul Municipality, says fuel is given to the municipality as per the procedure laid down by the council of ministers in 1978. The municipality in turn distributes it to departments including the sanitation presidency for its vehicles on the basis of a bill approved by ANSA.
Fuel allocation is decided on the basis of number of tyres, cylinder and capacity of the vehicle. For instance, the Russian eight-wheel Kamaz is eligible for 84 litres, the US DAM truck for 65-67 litres and the Indian Tata truck for 37 litres.
Corruption
But there is rampant abuse, and a study by Kabul Municipality, according to spokesperson Sultani, shows 26 million Afs (382,000 USD) could be saved by tightening avenues for pilferage and corruption.
If Kabul Municipality vehicles including trucks for garbage collection were equipped with GPS, drivers would not be able to misuse their vehicles.
Engineer Ghulam Sarwar Hamgam, head of ANSA’s codification of national standards and construction codes, thinks this could be easily done. ANSA has reviewed the 1978 bill and proposed changes that have been forwarded to the cabinet.
Some 2,750 new norms have been proposed for vehicles, machinery and generators in the new bill.
So far MoF has announced new fuel quotas for high ranking government authorities through presidential decrees: number 477 in 2001, number 1136 in 2002, and number 2430 in 2003. Later it set a limit of 250 litres per month for ministers and deputy ministers and 200 litres for heads of presidencies in each ministry and governors of districts and provinces. The entitlement covers their escort vehicles and guards. Abdul Razaq Samadi, the administrative deputy minister, has sanctioned the latter entitlement.
The administrative decision was approved by a presidential decree issued in 2008 by then president Hamid Karzai.
MoF officials say high-ranking government authorities are not satisfied with their present fuel quotas, and have asked the ministry to also increase the quantity of lubricants they are entitled to.
Mohammad Aqa Kohistani, treasury head in MoF, told Killid that following complaints that fuel entitlements were inadequate the MoF has asked the president’s office to hike the quota by 50 litres for officials using fuel-consuming armoured vehicles.
