VZCZCXRO0112
PP RUEHDBU RUEHPW RUEHSL
DE RUEHBUL #0025/01 0041154
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 041154Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4453
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASH DC PRIORITY
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 000025 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR D/LEW, S/SRAP AND SCA/A 
TREASURY FOR LMCDONALD, MNUGENT, JCASAL, AKIFAYAT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/03/2020 
TAGS: EFIN EAID PGOV PREL AF
SUBJECT: COMMERCE OFFICIAL ON CABINET DEAL-MAKING IN PARLIAMENT 
 
REF: (A) KABUL 21 
     (B) 09 KABUL 4139 
 
Classified By: Ambassador E. Anthony Wayne for reasons 1.4 (b) and 
(d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: During a January 1 meeting, Afghanistan-Pakistan 
Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) Chief Negotiator (and former Commerce 
Deputy Minister) Adib Farhadi expressed serious concerns about the 
Afghan Ministerial confirmation process to  Coordinating Director for 
Development and Economic Affairs Ambassador E. Anthony Wayne. 
Farhadi concerns about the current "wheeling and dealing" by Karzai 
cabinet appointees among Parliamentary factions appear partially 
borne out by the parliamentary vote on January 2.  Describing January 
1 as the climax of these back-room negotiations, Farhadi said many 
minister-designees were trying to hammer out "corrupt arrangements" 
with key parliamentarians and voting factions to garner enough votes 
to win their portfolios.  Farhadi did not name ministerial names 
(except for some finger-pointing at Commerce Minister designate 
Aylaki) but indicated several candidates were engaging in corrupt 
practices across the board for those ministries with money-making 
potential.  (NB: Other Afghan contacts have made similar claims of 
ministerial candidate payoffs in exchange for MP votes (see Ref A). 
Parliament's Jan. 2 rejection of all but 7 of the 24 candidates lends 
credence to Farhadi's claims.  The losers included Aylaki despite 
Farhadi's accusations.)  End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Embassy and AID officers have worked closely with Farhadi 
over the past year, chiefly on the APTTA and consider him a credible 
provider of background information.  A dual American-Afghan citizen 
with more than five years of experience here as a World Bank 
contractor, Commerce Ministry Deputy Minister, and Trade Negotiator, 
Farhadi is preparing to depart Afghanistan o/a January 4 to take up a 
fellowship at Australian National University and serve as Commercial 
Attache at the Afghan Consulate in Sydney.  While working intensively 
on London Conference preparations with National Security Advisor Dr. 
Zalmay Rassoul up to his departure, Farhadi expects to be called back 
to help GIRoA wrap up the APTTA and Afghanistan's pending World Trade 
Organization application (reported septel). 
 
CABINET WHEELING AND DEALING IN PARLIAMENT 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶3. (C) Farhadi expressed serious concerns about the intensifying 
"wheeling and dealing" by Karzai cabinet appointees among 
Parliamentary factions.  Describing January 1 as the climax of these 
back-room negotiations, Farhadi said many minister-designees were 
meeting with parliamentarians that day to hammer out "corrupt 
arrangements" in last-ditch efforts to win their portfolios.  Farhadi 
did not name ministerial names but indicated corrupt practices were 
pursued across the board, for those ministries that had money-making 
potential.  He said he had sat in on similar meetings in previous 
years, but these meetings were much more direct: give me contracts or 
money.  (NB: On January 2, Parliament approved just 7 of the 24 
ministerial nominees. Other contacts have confirmed that candidates 
who did not make payoffs to MPs lost their votes.  However, not all 
of those accused of payoffs succeeded, either.  See reference to 
Commerce Minister Aylaki, below.  See Ref A for more details.) 
 
¶4. (C) Asked about Commerce Minister-designate Aylaki's chances for 
confirmation, Farhadi replied that Aylaki had baggage from his 
previous service in the 1980-90's as President Najibullah's Deputy 
Commerce Minister and his past ties with Communist Party leaders. 
(Note: Harking back to his state-directed experience in government in 
his recent confirmation hearing, Aylaki seemed committed his 
potential ministry to restore "coupon" systems disbursing food, 
cooking oil, and fuel to presumably needy Afghan families.  End 
note.)  Farhadi indicated that Aylaki was making deals with key 
factions, promising them business licenses, special access to 
state-owned enterprise assets, and other preferential arrangements in 
return for their votes.  He made no predictions on whether Aylaki 
would win a vote of confidence and cited a member of "mistakes" by 
Aylaki in his testimony before parliament which alienated business 
leaders.  (Note:  On January 2, Aylaki failed to obtain parliamentary 
approval, with the fourth largest "no" votes among the 24 ministerial 
candidates.  End note.) 
 
¶5. (C) Farhadi anticipated that some ministers would not receive 
votes of confidence and President Karzai would have to resume his 
candidate search.  He indicated that some would have trouble 
demonstrating to Parliament that they were not dual citizens, as 
required under so far unenforced constitutional requirements.  In 
this regard, he named Finance Minister Zakhilwal as having a tough 
case to prove.  (Note: Zakhilwal holds Canadian citizenship but has 
"surrendered" his passport to the Canadian Embassy.  On January 2, 
the initial parliamentary vote approved Zakhilwal along with 6 other 
candidates including former Commerce Minister Shahrani who is headed 
to the Ministry of Mines.  End note.) 
 
 
KABUL 00000025  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶6. (C) Asked about the Foreign Minister slot yet to be named, Farhadi 
indicated that National Security Advisor Dr. Zalmay Rassoul and Dr. 
Spanta might switch places.  Farhadi added that Dr. Spanta had 
received two separate votes of no confidence over the past three 
years that had undermined his ability to work effectively with 
Parliament.  Both votes stemmed from his failure to address 
parliamentary concerns about Afghan workers expelled from Iran in 
¶2006.  Farhadi noted that the Assembly had recently passed a 
resolution attempting to bar Dr. Spanta from representing Afghanistan 
at the London Conference, thus going against President Karzai's own 
announced plan to keep Dr. Spanta in place for that purpose. 
 
CAPACITY-BUILDING IS INSULTING 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶7. (C) Farhadi said that the Commerce Ministry had recently been the 
scene of some "physical office fights" between the "new guard" 
brought in by Minister Shahrani and older officials who had been 
shunted aside by them.  (Note: Shahrani brought in a cadre of young, 
well-trained mid-level managers to help him drive an ambitious reform 
agenda in the Ministry that would not have moved under the old guard. 
 End note.)  Unwisely, however, the new guard had insulted or burnt 
bridges of communication with the older generation and now had to 
brace for vindictive score-settling.  Some older employees were 
threatening the new entrants with physical violence and seeking to 
move them to less desirable offices in the ministry.  Farhadi said he 
had been trying to keep the peace along with Acting Minister Sharifi 
but it was only a matter of time before the diaspora of younger 
officials accelerated out of Commerce probably to Shahrani's new 
Ministry of Mines. 
 
¶8. (C) Turning generally to "capacity-building" at the Commerce 
Ministry, Farhadi said international donor approaches were undermined 
by the very term, "capacity-building", which, in Dari and Pashtu, is 
ambiguous, implying that Afghan officials lack capability rather than 
skills.  Farhadi suggested that we relabel such initiatives as "skill 
development" initiatives to emphasize the need for specialized 
expertise. 
 
COMMENT 
- - - - 
 
¶9. (C) Farhadi has no specific job prospects since he is preparing to 
depart Afghanistan for Australia but may be called back for APTTA and 
possibly WTO talks.  He remains closely connected with Presidential 
Palace players including NSA's Rassoul and has ridden horses with 
First Vice President Fahim.  In light of his good access and reliable 
record of providing inside information, we find his allegations of 
inside deals on Cabinet confirmations to be credible and confirmed by 
others in subsequent conversations.  End comment. 
 
RICCIARDONE