Amid reports of a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in Afghanistan, the Kabul government is facing mounting criticism over alleged misuse of international funds to battle the pandemic, the media reported.

A Kabul-based anti-corruption organization, Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA), on Friday said the government was not ready to provide the details of the money it spent for combating the pandemic, reports TOLO News.

"The Afghan government has not been accountable in spending COVID-19 budget, in many cases, either they provided us incomplete information or refrained from providing details about it," said Sayed Ikram Afzali, the head of IWA.

The Ministry of Finance said the institutions that were assigned to fight the health crisis have not reported back about the scale and area of the fund spending.

"The overall money provided by international donors and the budget that was allocated by the government for fighting COVID-19 are estimated to 19.8 billion Afghanis," said Shamroz Khan Masjidi, spokesman for the Ministry.

The Attorney General's Office said that some cases of corruption against former and current officials of the Ministry of Public Health and a hospital officials in some provinces have been investigated.

"Investigation of the cases related to four provinces has been done. Our colleagues are in the process of concluding them. They will soon issue their verdicts on it," TOLO News quoted Jamshid Rasouli, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, as saying.

On Friday, the Ministry of Public Health on Friday reported 77 new Covid-cases and two fatalities.

As a result the overall caseload in the country has now increased to 39,639, while the death toll stood at 1,472.
(IANS)