Employees at the Statistics and Information Authority under Taliban control are speaking out against what they describe as discrimination and inequality in the distribution of bonus pay at the institution. They say that each year, in addition to their official salaries, bonuses are allocated to staff, but the way these payments are distributed is marked by serious injustice and favoritism. Even within identical job grades, they say, the bonus amounts vary widely from one employee to another. Sources report that bonus pay at Grade Four ranges from 6,000 to 12,000 Afghanis, at Grade Three from 12,000 to 36,000 Afghanis, while the heads of the institution receive between 50,000 and 70,000 Afghanis in bonuses on top of their official salaries.
Several employees have voiced concern over how these bonuses are handed out. They say the amounts differ significantly from one staff member to another, with no transparent system based on performance evaluation. Instead, they argue, bonuses are awarded according to personal preference and ideological or intellectual leanings.
One source at the institution told the Hasht-e Subh Daily: “At Grade Four, one employee receives 6,000 Afghanis, another gets 9,000, and yet another 12,000.” According to the source, bonuses are distributed unfairly, and the same pattern is seen across other job grades.
The source added: “At Grade Three, the gaps are even wider. Some receive 12,000 Afghanis, others 20,000, and some as much as 36,000 in bonuses, while Grade Five employees in many cases receive nothing at all.”
Staff at the Statistics and Information Authority say the salaries and bonuses of senior officials, including department heads, are exceptionally high, with each receiving between 50,000 and 70,000 Afghanis in bonus pay and, at times, even more. According to them, there is no transparency regarding how these payments are determined.
One employee said, “The fundamental problem is that there is no independent body to review staff complaints or oversee how these bonuses are distributed. Ordinary employees effectively have no voice to seek justice.”
Employees of the institution further stress that they have not been paid for nearly two months and are struggling with severe financial hardship. According to them, those who receive larger bonuses can borrow from shopkeepers until salaries are paid. Still, those who receive no bonus at all, surviving on meager wages, cannot even get credit from local shops until their salaries arrive.
One employee, who asked not to be named, said: “By publishing this issue, perhaps a platform can be created for the voices of employees to be heard. It has been more than a month and twenty days since salaries were last paid.”
The complaints at the Statistics and Information Authority echo wider grievances across the public sector. Other government employees say the Taliban have not paid their salaries for nearly two months. Teachers across the country also report serious hardship due to low wages and rising living costs, yet Taliban officials, they say, are showing little concern for the timely payment of their salaries.
A teacher in the country wrote to the Hasht-e Subh Daily, saying: “Publish our complaint. Teachers’ salaries are not paid on time. People are exhausted. Everyone’s pay has been raised, except for teachers. They have increased the salaries of their own military forces, but they do not pay our meager wages on time.”
The Hasht-e Subh Daily previously reported, in an investigative piece, that officials of state-owned enterprises under Taliban control have set salaries of up to 360,000 Afghanis for themselves, while ordinary staff at the same enterprises earn extremely low wages and face severe economic hardship. According to the report’s findings, a Talib official at these enterprises ranked at Step Five receives a monthly salary of 200,000 Afghanis. At sub-step two of the same level, the figure rises to 240,000 Afghanis, at sub-step three to 280,000, at sub-step four to 320,000, and at sub-step five to 360,000 Afghanis per month.
Despite Taliban claims of upholding transparency, several government employees working under the group’s control complain of systematic exclusion and discrimination. They say credibility within institutions is judged by the length of one’s beard and by reporting to Taliban officials. Bonuses, according to them, are awarded based on ethnicity and the degree of loyalty shown to the Taliban, and the majority of new hires are either Taliban fighters or affiliates of the group.
This comes as Transparency International, in its annual report, has placed Afghanistan under Taliban control 169th out of 182 countries in 2025, dropping one place in the global corruption ranking. The report is published each year under the title Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). According to the findings, Afghanistan under Taliban rule scored only 16 out of 100 on the transparency index, remaining one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
You can read the Persian versian of the report here:
«یک بام و دو هوا»؛ شکایت کارمندان اداره احصاییه و معلومات طالبان از توزیع معاش امتیازی
