Blurred lines of a contract; Ajmal Ahmady paid per day USD 500

An official Contract for Services obtained by Kabul Now suggests that the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has paid USD 500 per day to Ajmal Ahmady, acting governor of Da Afghanistan Bank, who then served as Senior Adviser to the President in Banking and Financial Affairs. The document shows that Ahmady was entitled to receive a daily wage of USD 500 for one year. The contract signed between Mohammad Homayoun Qayyumi, former acting finance minister and Ajmal Ahmady is made for 12 months (from July 01, 2018 to June 30, 2019) and estimates a total monthly remuneration of USD 12,000 (inclusive of government taxes) for 24 working days each month which is funded by the Word Bank.

According to the document, in addition to the monthly salary, Ahmady has received a total of USD 21,400 as accommodation (10,800 USD/yearly), mobile top up (600 USD/Yearly), and round trip (10,000 USD/yearly) costs from the MoF for the unclear services he has provided during the term. As estimated in the contract, Ahmady would have been paid more than USD 150,000 within the agreed term, 12 months.