In a letter to the Ministry of Finance, the Administrative Office of the President requested that the Ministry should dismiss the head of Herat Customs, Yonous Rahnaward, and refer him to the Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the leaked official letter, following the findings of the investigative team, 138 employees were identified to have been hired illegally and should be fired.
Those involved in illegal employment should also be removed from their posts, and referred to the prosecutor’s office, the letter indicated.
On the other hand, the letter states that Mohammad Yonous Rahnaward, chief of Herat customs is dismissed from his duties and due to money embezzlement and corruption in Herat’s Department of Transport, he will be introduced to Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
He is dismissed based on the previous investigating team findings, this letter was issued with the number 15089 and on 10/30/1399.
Rahnaward is said to have been appointed as the head of Herat customs with the financial support of Parliament Member (MP) Sadiq Qaderi.
Herat Customs is one of the largest sources of national revenue and funding for the annual budget, and millions of tons of imported and exported goods of Afghanistan are transited through this custom every year.
Reports indicate custom officers in Herat received Afs10, 000 out of each transport truck and later wrongfully reported the amount and type of the cargo.
An estimated 100,000 afghanis per truck goes to the local mafia groups.
Members of the Herat Provincial Council had also revealed that the gates for transit are left open during unofficial hours in the night, hundreds of trucks evaded paying their taxes.
In the previous years, the government purchased scanners and a digital scale for the customs of Herat province to determine the true type, volume, and size of imported goods, but after some time of utilization, the scanners became obsolete and unusable.
