[TOLONEWS] Zalmai Zabuli, the head of the Senate Complaints Commission, launched scathing accusations against General Musa Wardak, the head of the Ministry of Defense's (MoD) Health Department, and called for his dismissal on Monday.The Complaints Commission said it had reason to believe corruption was a porblem in the Health Department. Zabuli also noted that the Commission had received a number of complaints over the past month from provincial offices of the MoD's Health Department indicating that Gen. Wardak had abused the powers of his office and fired several doctors from their jobs without due cause.
"Our preliminary assessments show that corruption exists in the Health Department of the Ministry of Defense on a large scale, and we registered many complaints about the head of the Health Department," said Senator Zabuli.
Zabuli maintained that his Commission had already coordinated with the MoD and determined that Wardak should be let go, but that still no steps had been taken by the Ministry.
"We worked jointly with the Ministry of Defense and we decided to fire him from the post, but unfortunately he hasn't been fired," said Zabuli.
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General Zahir Azimi, the MoD front man, said that the dismissal of officials from the Ministry was under the authority of the Minister of Defense alone.
But Zabuli was insistent, and even went so far as to put the Defense Minister in his sights.
"We demanded dismissal of the head of the Health Department of the Defense Ministry many times because he has been involved in corruption and has fired several doctors from their jobs without reason...if he isn't fired from the job, it suggests that the Defense Minister is also involved in corruption," he said.
Azimi urged the Senate Commission to take its case through the proper legal channels and present whatever evidence of wrongdoing it had against Wardak to the Attorney General.
"We ask that the Senate Complaints Commission submit its proof of corruption in the case against the head of the Health Department of the Defense Ministry to the Attorney General's office so that the Attorney General can make a decision on the issue," said Azimi. "But the recruitment and dismissal of Defense Ministry officials is not the authority of anybody except the Minister of Defense."
Zabuli and the other Senate members of the Complaints Commission did not say whether or not they planned to forward Wardak's case on to the Attorney General.