Monday September 16, 2013
Kabul (BNA) Officials of Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC) have strongly rejected the allegations on embezzlement of one million dollars by Dr. Sayed Makhdoom Raheen.
The allegations posed on the minister by the two employee of the concerned ministry after they were fired from their posts.
In a press briefing held here in Kabul, Minister of Information and Culture Dr. Sayed Makhdoom Raheen strongly rejected the accusations of nearly one million dollars embezzlement from the financial assistance of the South Asia Foundation (SAF) allocated for renovation of cultural heritages.
The minister reiterated that the allegation which was broadcasted in some foreign media outlets is a clear conspiracy against him and it’s away from the facts.
“Eleven years have been passed since formation of the current political system, but Minister of Information and Culture never found involved in embezzlement of even a penny, media persons have close recognition with me, I have always considered journalist community as part of my family, they have felt my love and affections, but those who put allegations in-fact are those elements who have fired from their positions due to particular reason, Minister of Information and Culture Dr. Sayed Makhdoom Raheen said”.
“A western publication has published such a report without finding the fact and without being aware from the reality, they have posted the assertions of up four or five employees of the ministry whose jobs were terminated by particular reasons, it’s not the first allegations, prior to this, several allegations have been posted against me, previously, they accused me of stealing up to 50 ancient relics, luckily, the accusations were found baseless and elements behind the allegations defamed themselves, during my service, I have always strived to give love and affections to all society segments including, journalist, artists, singers, archeologists Dr. Raheen added.”
Responding to a query with regard to embezzlement of one million dollars financial assistance of South Asia Foundation (SAF) Minister of Information and Culture said that Afghanistan has its own cultural attaches in every country who serve for three years term, when the ministry dispatched a letter to Mr. Mumtaz Fazullah who was serving in UAE as our cultural attaché and asked him to return back to the country, he felt angry and started putting allegations on me on a western media is completely baseless.
“The amount of dollars one million was not transferred into my account.
In 2003 when I was on Paris tour, I met with a cultural figure from India and his name was Madanjeet Singh, he was living in the UK and there he had established a foundation, he was providing financial assistance to seven south Asian countries of Indian, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Maldives, Afghanistan was missing this list.
I realized that South Asia Foundation is not complete without Afghanistan, Mr. Singh decided to inaugurate one branch of his foundation in Afghanistan, in his meeting with president Karzai, he asked me to take the charge of South Asia Foundation chairmanship, I accepted the demand of President Karzai, said Dr. Raheen, adding that I accepted the charge as a great honor, later on Mr. Singh send me 60,000 dollars, I opened an account in Bank-e-Milli, later on he send me another amount of 80,000 dollars, the money was transferred to the ministry of finance, it was decided to use the financial assistance for renovation of media center and the building was constructed with the financial amount of 152,000 dollar”.
“When I was designated as Afghanistan ambassador to India, I transferred the responsibility to Mr. Masoodi chairman of the National Museum of Afghanistan, when I left Kabul for Delhi, during that day, from the overall amount, only 37,000 dollars were in the account, the rest of the money were spent on renovation of cultural heritages, he stated”.
