A month after the Taliban seizure of power in Afghanistan, who denounce the corruption of the former regime and praise their own transparency, nearly $ 12.3 million in cash and gold bars were found at former homes. Afghan dignitaries, the Central Bank announced on Wednesday.
“The money recovered came from senior leaders of the previous government, such as Amrullah Saleh (the ex-vice-president), and certain security agencies who kept cash and gold in their offices,” the statement said. of the Afghan Central Bank. “The Islamic Emirate”, the name given to Afghanistan by the Taliban, transferred everything “to national coffers” in the name of “transparency”, according to this text.
Shortage of cash
The Central Bank specifies that it does not know “at this stage for what purpose” this cash and these gold bars had been kept. Under the government of former President Ashraf Ghani, corruption was widespread and endemic. Tens of millions of dollars in aid would thus have been diverted from public funds. The former head of state is himself accused of having taken millions of dollars during his flight to Abu Dhabi, which he has denied on several occasions since.
The announcement of the $ 12 million recovered comes as the country, controlled for a month by the Islamist movement, faces a shortage of cash. To avoid a collapse of the banking system, Afghans are only allowed to withdraw the equivalent of $ 200 per week per person. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund suspended their aid and the United States froze the reserves of the Afghan Central Bank held in Washington.