Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR) recently issued a report titled: “ Theft of Funds from Afghanistan: An Assessment of Allegations Concerning President Ghani and Former Senior Afghan Officials.”
According to the report’s findings, the amount of cash taken by former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani when leaving the country as the Islamic Emirate’s forces closed in on Kabul was less than $1 million.
“One former senior official on the helicopter added, ‘everyone had $5,000 to $10,000 in their pockets… No one had millions.’ Likewise, Ghani and National Security Advisor Mohib have both insisted to the media that they did not flee with millions of dollars that day. If true this puts the total amount of cash on board the three helicopters at approximately $500,000 with $440,000 belonging to the Afghan government,” the report said.
However, the report highlighted the existence of corruption within the former administration.
The report was made based on interviews with 30 former officials including people close to Ghani.
“Multiple former senior officials claimed that this money was actually not the president’s personal money but leftover funds provided by the UAE to support Ghani’s 2019 reelection campaign,” the report reads. “Ghani has stolen the dignity, feeling and honor of a country. The looting he committed is more than $169 million,” said Mohammad Iqbal Safi, a former member of the parliament.
“These powerful (countries), because of their personal interests and cold war, are able to show the patriots as bad people and those who are not against their interests as good people,” said Ahmad Khan Andar, a political analyst.
SIGAR in a previous report assessed the Afghan National Police under the previous republic government. “We have had problems in the leadership of strategy and the management of strategy. This lack of enough political experiences, lack of a governance finally cause a collapse of the (Afghan National) Police,” said Wais Ahmad Barmak, Minister of Interior of the former government.
