First Vice President Amrullah Saleh lashed out at critics who commented on the cost of the Loya Jirga, and said the Afghan government spends 4.2 billion AFN annually for the protection and security of high-ranked officials, some of whom work to undermine the system.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Saleh called out people who said the government was spending too much for the Peace Consultative Loya Jirga, which is around 330 million AFN.
“I was waiting for criticism of other figures,” he wrote, adding that the government spends 4.2 billion AFN annually for the security of senior officials.

“A number of these figures [senior officials] and personalities unfortunately spend more than half of their time weakening the system in order to achieve their personal desires and aspirations to feed their greed,” Saleh rued.
“We hope to discuss this astronomical consumption. Let’s find out how much money is spent to protect which person, that’s the best.”
The vice president said the Peace Consultative Loya Jirga was invaluable since “advising the nation and respecting the opinion of the nation is more valuable than any price.”
“The reasons for this great and courageous action will be clearly explained in the President’s speech tomorrow,” he wrote.
In the previous year, the Loya Jirga had been convened at the cost of 369 million AFN.