Taliban, unable to pay salaries due to 'shortage of money', lays off World Bank employees

Due to shortage of money and looming economic crisis, Taliban led Afghanistan government on Saturday, December 25 fired scores of World Bank‘s employees as it couldn’t afford to pay their salaries anymore, local Afghan media reported. The Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) has sacked several employees, a letter from the ministry obtained by Sputnik informed, adding that the Taliban was unable to pay the wages for the rural rehabilitation and development staff anymore. 

While it was immediately not clear how many workers were laid off by the Taliban but reportedly there are an estimated 15,000 World Bank contract workers employed in Afghanistan. No official announcement has been made yet by the Taliban-led government on the development yet. It is being speculated that the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) has dismissed the dozens of World Bank employees due to the devastating humanitarian crisis unfolding within the country since the US forces exited the territory. 

The United States in a show of support had earlier announced that it will be providing $144 million in humanitarian assistance to people in Afghanistan but not the Taliban. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that the donation will push the total US humanitarian aid in Afghanistan to nearly $474 million in 2021 which is also the “largest” amount that any other nation has allocated for the South Asian country. 

The aid, however, was being allocated directly to humanitarian organizations such as “the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Health Organization (WHO). This came as the Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged other countries to take immediate action to mitigate the hunger, monetary issues, and severe health crisis in Afghanistan. The collapsing education setups, the banking system, and other critical needs require the cooperation of the Taliban regime, it stressed. 

'Yes, I saw this letter,' an eyewitness recalls

A source in the ministry has now told Sputnik on Saturday, citing a letter from the ministry, that the number of World Bank contract employees is up to 15,000. And “yes, I saw this letter,” he said confirming the news, adding that the fate of the sacked employees is not yet known. “The Taliban [under UN sanctions for terrorism] have replied that they will not be able to pay salaries in the new fiscal year. Waiting for the World Bank to say what it wants," an employee of the World Bank working for MRRD separately told the agency. 

Due to the monetary crisis, many state workers, the UN, and the World Bank’s staff, education, and healthcare personnel have not received their salaries for several months, as per Sputnik. Salary delays have impacted nearly half a million state workers, according to Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi. Earlier this month, Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund managed by the World Bank had informed that was planning to transfer $100 million to UNICEF and $180 million to the World Food Programme to help avert the crisis situation.