EU Suspends $37 Million Aid to Afghan Police

The European Union blocked the release of $37 million to a UN-run fund that financed Afghan Police, a Western Official in Kabul told Wall Street Journal.

The European Union, US and Japan are the key donors of the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA), while EU has pledged to spend about $175 million for the current phase of the programme covering January 2011 to March 2013.

LOTFA personnel told the Afghan and international monitoring committee that UN officials had abused the $2.2 million fund for paying salaries to nonexistent police officers and creating high payment positions for the personnel with links to Afghan government leaders.

Officials at the UN Development Programme, which administers LOTFA, have denied allegations of mismanagement and corruption at the fund

This comes as the Afghan Ministry of Interior said that if the aid gets suspended, it will definitely have negative impacts.

“EU, US and Japan were the main donors of the training and public awareness, LOTFA should be accountable for it, because Ministry of Interior has no role in it,” Deputy MOI spokesman, Dr Najeeb told TOLOnews today.

“If the aid is suspended, it will definitely have negative impacts.”

LOTFA is a multi-lateral Trust Fund set up in 2002 as a mechanism for coordinating contributions from partners, as part of the international community’s support to build the Afghan national police force.

Source: tolonews.tv