PAN (Translated by RAWA), November 17, 2009

The five-month salary of an Afghan soldier is equal to one day fare of a General’s transportation

US military from the Camp Eggers rented out 31 armored vehicles for the generals of Defense Ministry each costing USD 500 per day

Afghanistan’s Finance Ministry denied all kinds of government intervention in the one-year contract of renting out 31 armored vehicles (each car costing $500 per day) for high-ranked officials of Defense Ministry.

The head of Logistics of Defense Ministry, General Azizuddin Yousafzai confirmed that the US military from the Camp Eggers (the US military advisors who are responsible for mobilizing Afghan Army in Afghanistan) rented out 31 armored vehicles for the generals of Defense Ministry a month back.

Jangul Karger, the representative of Parwan province in the parliament gave this report to PAN according to which each armored Land Cruiser is rented out for $500 each day.

Karger said that all these cars belonged to a private company and each vehicle costs around $120,000 but he did not name the company.

Muhammad Naeem Deendar, the head of investigation and control department of Finance Ministry told PAN that after contacting the investigators of this issue in Defense Ministry, it denied the complete interference of the government and partial involvement of the Defense Ministry.

According to Deendar, these vehicles were provided by the military groups of US to the Defense Ministry and there is no contract or proposal from the Defense Ministry.

Just recently, PAN has received reports that some independent and government offices such as Interior Ministry, National Security Directorate and Independent Election Commission also have contracts to rent out new model vehicles with private companies but it is not confirmed as yet.

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