Sunday August 4, 2019
Kabul (BNA) The Ministry of National Defense on Saturday rejected a report by a top US watchdog on the existence of “ghost soldiers” nonexistent personnel in the structure of the Afghan National Army, saying more than 99 members of the Army have been recognized by the biometric system. In a report to the US Congress on July 30, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said the number of ANDSF troops fell by nearly 42,000 compared to the same period last year. The report said that this quarter’s ANDSF strength decreased by 41,777 personnel since approximately the same period in 2018, and by 50,277 compared to about the same period in 2017. According to the report, there are 180,869 Afghan National Army (ANA) and 91,596 Afghan National Police (ANP) personnel enrolled and accounted for in APPS as of May 25, 2019.
This is roughly 10,000 ANA fewer and 25,000 ANP fewer than the numbers reported to SIGAR last quarter.80 This quarter’s strength of 272,465 puts the ANDSF at 77.4%, and 79,535 personnel short, of its goal strength of 352,000.81, the report added. Defense Ministry spokesman Rohullah Ahmadzai said that at least 100 percent of Afghan National Army personnel have “physical presence” on their duties and that those who were involved in corruption are under investigation by the ministry. “There is no ‘ghost soldier’ in the ranks of the Afghan National Army,” Ahmadzai told reporters. “SIGAR has not contacted the Ministry of Defense when it made the report and it has not asked for information from the Ministry of Defense.” This comes as the Afghan forces are fighting the Taliban and other militant groups in more than 20 provinces. The forces could recapture most of the lost areas and conducted dozens of mopping up operations, which resulted to killing, injuring and arresting of hundreds of militants across the country in recent fighting season.
