Classified diplomatic cables reveal, former Afghan vice-president Ahmad Zia Massoud flew into Dubai with $52million in cash and was never asked to explain where it came from, reports Daily Mail, London.
U.S. envoy Karl Eikenberry told America that 'vast amounts of cash come and go from the country on a weekly, monthly and annual basis'.
Before last year's presidential election, some $600 million in banking system withdrawals were reported.
Another cable detailed how the transportation ministry collects $200 million a year in trucking fees but only $30 million is turned over to the government.
'Individuals pay up to $250,000 for the post heading the office in Herat, for example, and end up owning beautiful mansions as well as making lucrative political donations,' Wahidullah Shahrani, now the mines minister, was quoted as saying.
The governor of Ghazni, Usman Usmani, and governor of Paktiya, Juma Khan Hamdard, are accused of corruption, extortion and theft of public funds.
One cable said: 'Credible sources indicate that some of the most senior government officials in [Ghazni] province have chronically engaged in significant corrupt acts: embezzling public funds, stealing humanitarian assistance and misappropriating government property, among others.'
'The consistency and scope of explicit and detailed allegations lends veracity to charges that pervasive corruption defrauds the people of meaningful government services and significantly undermines popular support for the Afghan government.'
In Paktiya, Hamdard allegedly takes bribes fromc ontractors by sending in armed men to hold contractors at construction sites until the money is paid.
Other messages display the U.S. conviction that Hamid Karzai's brother Ahmad Wali (AWK), a council chairman in Kandahar, is corrupt.
In June 2009, a cable said he was only interested in massing money and power 'through a network of political clans and the use of state institutions to protect and enable licit and illicit enterprises'.
It adds that AWK's main aim was 'the enrichment, extension and perpetuation of the Karzai clan'.
