KABUL - Finance Ministry said that according to the decision of the cabinet, the New Kabul Bank should be sold. The original Kabul Bank, used to pay government salaries, collapsed in 2010 with debts of almost $1 billion, triggering a financial crisis.

The banking sector has yet to recover from the blow and the government has struggled to find a buyer for the new state-run institution.

However, deputy of Afghanistan Central Bank says that this time all conditions will be considered to identify the buyer.

Treasury chief of the finance ministry, Muhammad Aqa Kohestani noted that the New Kabul Bank is now in a situation of loss.

The troubled New Kabul Bank has lost $ millions over the past four years, according to Aqa, because of strict rules on its lending and investment.

“According to the decision of the cabinet the bidding for the New Kabul Bank will continue for two months and the conditions are that the buyer should have $ 20 million in his bank account and an official licensed even the buyer can be a foreign citizen,” Muhammad Aqa Kohistani, treasury chief of finance ministry said.

Kabul Bank was badly shaken and almost collapsed in one of “the worst banking scandals in history,” in the past.

Previously, President Ashraf Ghani opened efforts to bring former Kabul Bank officials involved in the Kabul Bank Crisis to justice, extend and enforce prison sentences for those previously convicted, and seek to recover hundreds of millions of U.S. and Afghan taxpayers’ dollars in funds stolen or lost by embezzlement, corruption, and fraud by the bank’s insiders.

Ghani vowed to seek to continue the investigation of the Kabul Bank crisis and fight corruption in Afghanistan.

In October 2014, the Ghani Administration in Kabul reportedly officially re-opened the investigation. (ATN)