Afghanistan: Funds for roads end up in private pockets

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Only a fraction of Kabul’s streets are paved properly. The vast majority of roads are nothing but potholes and dirt, yet contractors regularly overshoot road-building budgets. The Independent Media Consortium Productions (IMCP) investigates the money trail.* The Kabul Municipality has accused the Turkish-owned Copy International and three Afghan firms -- Hewadwal, Latifi and Quyash Niazi -- of inflating road-construction costs. A committee appointed by the president’s office in end-2008 to probe the charges of embezzling funds and failing to adhere to the terms of the contract had representatives from the ministries of economy, public works, and finance, the State Administration Office and Kabul Municipality. The findings were submitted with evidence to the presidential palace. Kabul residents complain the roads that have been repaired are in the10th, 1st, 2nd and 17th districts where the rich and powerful live. Meanwhile, work has not finished on a 2 km stretch from Campany to Mahtab Qala that should have completed in end 2011. In the 13th district, Reza, a resident says, “The work is going on very slowly on Barchi road, a grinder works like an ant …” The findings, which IMC has made public for the first time, has been endorsed by its authors Engineer Abdul Ahad Wahid, Technical and Construction Deputy Mayor of Kabul Municipality, Muradi, representative of the palace, Engineer Adel Shah, representative of Ministry of Public Works, Nayeb Khail representative of Finance Ministry and Bismillah Bismil, the technical adviser to Kabul Municipality. The companies that claimed the entire budget for the projects, did not bother to return the money for work that remains outstanding. Instead, additional funds handed out by the Kabul Municipality have also been pocketed. Investigations by IMC reveal that Quyash Niazi spent 4.43 million dollars to pave a 70 metre wide road in the west of Kabul but charged Kabul Municipality 7.2 million dollars. Copy International spent 16 million dollars on the road from the airport to Intercontinental Hotel, but collected 18 million dollars. Documents submitted by Hewadwal show the cost of work on Qala Zaman Khan in the 16th district was 5.1 million dollars but Kabul municipality has disbursed 10.5 million dollars. Receipts and invoices also show that the cost of repair work for the 60 metre-Ahmad Shah Mena road in the 12th district through Bagrami executed by Latifi was 11 million dollars but Kabul municipality paid 12.95 million dollars.