After seven months of AFCAC’s effective and efficient advocacy campaign; the MOCIT took the overall ownership of 10 percent telecommunication service tax deducting system, ATRA and MOF will work closely with MOCIT to collect 10% tax in a transparent manner. In addition, the government effort has sped up for making Real-Time Data Management System (RTDMS) for collecting 10% telecommunication tax. The Minister of MoCIT Mr. Shehzad Gul Aryoobi has promised with AFCAC in the meeting and also in the AFCAC National Anti-Corruption Conference in front of media that the new system (RTDMS) will be in place within 3-4 months. He also said that introduction of RDMS is his priority and it will not just cut off the corruption hands in the process additionally it will help us to generate more revenue from the telecommunication sector. The development of the mentioned system is in the procurement stage, National Procurement Authority (NPA) has received a Proposal from 4 companies and soon they will sign a contract with one of them. Most of the parliament members are also agreed with the RDMS because it can help the government to allocate a budget for development. It is worth mentioning that public awareness has been increased, most people know about the current 10% telecommunication tax deducting system.
AFCAC’s team with its pressure group members visited the Directorate of Results and High School Certificates Department for a monitoring and Advocacy visit. Mr. Abdul Zuhoor Hakim, head of results and high school certificates mentioned that the employees’ behavior has positively changed after the capacity building training and we have visited different offices of the department to observe their behavior with beneficiaries. The output of the training was positive for the employees.
Mr. Saddam Hussain and Mr. Nezamuddin approached AFCAC team when they came to know through social media (AFCAC’s Facebook page) that AFCAC is assisting corruption victims in MoE. Since AFCAC has a memorandum of understanding with MoE and has a pressure group consisting of skilled and experienced youth, Parliamentarians and Politicians, AFCAC’s team considered their problem about not issuing them 12th Grade Certificate and noticed that no one is listening to their problem in Directorate of High School Results and Certificates. That is when AFCAC’s team took their documents and visited the mentioned directorate with them and discussed the problems with the officials. Mr. Sulaimankhel, Head of overseas School Certificates said that their documents are not enough for the issuance of certificate but in fact, the documents were enough, so AFCAC’s team put some pressure on the officials as the team was already acquainted with the officials and reached the roots of the problem. After making the officials to consider their job, they took their documents and issued them 12th Grade certificate. This concluded as efforts and advocacy of AFCAC to get them their certificates.
One of the major and substantial activities for achieving AFCAC’s current project’s goal and objectives was the formation of 2 pressure groups, one for Kabul and the other for Nangarhar. With the help of AFCAC management, these so said pressure groups were formed according to predefined criteria. It is momentous to mention that these pressure groups consist of talented youth, Community Elders, Educationists, Media persons, Political Figures, Parliamentarians, Defense Lawyers (Advocates), and other influential personalities from communities. These Pressure Groups members will also be representatives of communities and will consider the complaints against MoE procedures and corruption. Moreover, they will be observers of MoE in the field during and after the completion of the project.
AFCAC’s team has arranged a consultation meeting with MoE High Officials as on 9th of May 2017 at Kabul Star Hotel. We are belated to say that we were able to invite MoE High Officials such as Mr. Hanif Balkhi Minister of Education, Mr. Ibrahim Shinwari Deputy Minister, Mr. Mahboobullah Sidiqi Advisor to Minister, Mr. Baheen Director of General Education and they all showed up for the meeting. From parliament, Mr. Safar Mohammad Kakar and Ms. Farida Kochai, members of Upper House, have participated in the meeting.
The meeting started well. After the introduction of the program by Mr. Sadaqat Ali Zia, AFCAC’s Director, the minister himself welcomed such an initiative. He said, “Civil Society in the ear and eye of the government, we warmly welcome them for further cooperation, let’s be of assistance to one another”. After a comprehensive and conclusive Q&A session with the MoE High Officials, key problems have been pointed out such as delay in issuance of 12th Grade Certificate especially for provincial students, the printing of fake 12th Grade Certificates and loss of students’ documentation along with effective recommendations for vanquishing the existing and potential hurdles.
