The governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, Ajmal Ahmadi, has made several fresh appointments and issued salaries disproportionate to their normal pay-scale, TOLOnews revealed in a report. 

The governor hired around 60 new people for the bank and some of them got $5836 beyond their regular salaries. All of the 60 appointments were made when Ajmal Ahmadi was heading the bank as its acting governor. Those hired include many relatives and friends of members of the Afghan parliament. 

TOLOnews, which accessed documents containing details of these appointments, claimed that most of the appointments were made to seek the support of Afghan MPs to confirm the governor’s position in the Afghan parliament. In the Afghan system, ministers or heads of state institutions, including intelligence agencies, need to get a confirmation for their positions by seeking votes in parliament.

In 2010, the Afghanistan banking system was on the verge of collapse when the government had realized that around $1 billion was siphoned off illegally from the bank. The scandal shattered the reputation of the Afghanistan government among the donor nations which had been pouring in billions of dollars for the survival of the country. 

Recently, President Ghani canceled dozens of assignments in the finance ministry saying all of them were made ignoring the established mechanism and procedures. 

In Afghanistan, MPs exerting undue pressure on ministers for appointments in government positions isn’t new. Recently during the Geneva Conference, Afghanistan’s first Vice-President Amrullah Saleh also criticized MPs saying when ministers take action against corrupt officials MPs threaten them with the cancelation of their ministerial confirmation.