KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The head of a Kandahar office that works to persuade Taliban fighters to drop their weapons says his agency is so cash-strapped it may have to shut its doors.

The director of the provincial Peace and Reconciliation Office says he can't understand why Canada has spent billions of dollars on its military mission in Kandahar province - and only a paltry $1,000 on his program.

Canadian officials point out that they have, in fact, set aside $14 million for eventual reconciliation efforts under a future program to be set up by the Afghan government. While they applaud the efforts of the existing program, they describe it as a rudimentary early attempt at reconciliation with far too many organizational flaws.

Program director Haji Aga Lalai says 517 former Taliban have passed through his office in downtown Kandahar city since 2006 to formally renounce the insurgency in exchange for a written amnesty guarantee.

But he says his organization, a provincial offshoot of a national program, has not paid its rent in five months and may need to cease operations.

The place would close within weeks, he says, if he stopped bankrolling it out of his own pocket.

"We have not seen the co-operation of Canadians," Lalai said in an interview.

"We're getting only $600 a month from the central office in Kabul - for everything. For everything. That's not even enough for our transportation."

He says the Canadian contribution so far has consisted of repairing four of the agency's vehicles, printing 3,000 promotional calendars and fixing some signboards in front of the office.

He estimates the financial value of that contribution at "$1,000 - maximum."

The office is surrounded by lush gardens in a walled, guarded compound in downtown Kandahar city just a few minutes' drive from the Canadian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team, or PRT.

A freshly painted white sign outside the office advertises the agency's name and provides phone numbers for people to call.

Lalai says he receives plenty of phone-in tips from contacts throughout the province about fighters looking to leave the insurgency.

He says his neighbours at the Canadian PRT have offered little so far, except encouraging words.

"They keep promising, 'We are going to do something for you guys'," Lalai says. "But the Canadians and PRT have not co-operated with us."

Canadian officials say they support the program's principles but lay out several concerns about its basic structure:

-It's part of a loosely-assembled organization headed by an Afghan parliamentarian, and not by the national government. Its national leader is Sibghatullah Mojadidi, Afghanistan's former president and current speaker of parliament's upper chamber.

-The Afghan government is looking to set up a more systematic program with similar aims.

-The guidelines for dealing with insurgents are far too improvised, right down to the hodge-podge of financial promises made to get them to stop fighting.

-It lacks basic tracking mechanisms that prove insurgents have actually stopped fighting after they receive the amnesty letter.

That last concern was laid bare during recent visits to the office where participants in the program mused openly about rejoining the insurgency.

A man who identified himself as Mullah Mirza says most of the 85 people he knows who joined the program have gone back to fighting.

He says his friends were disillusioned. They were offered lucrative incentives that were never delivered, he says.

"When they saw our result that we found nothing here, they stepped back," Mirza said in an interview.

"At first we were promised that we would be given a home and job as well - but nothing happened."

A similar story is told by a self-described former Taliban commander, Mullah Mohammed Zaher.

He says he joined the program because he wanted to come home to Kandahar city as a regular citizen, after hiding out in Pakistan for a few years.

But he says the promises of a house and job were never kept. He says he does receive some handouts from Lalai.

Unless things change soon, he says, he may go back to the insurgency. He says he was earning a steady income of $500 a month fighting for the Taliban.

"Even now we are receiving offers from the Taliban," Zaher says.

"The Taliban tells us: 'You have made a mistake. No problem. We will forgive you - just come back ... We can get you a house and pay you a good salary, just go back to your previous activities."

Arif Lalani, Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan, says the program has had some successes and that Canada supports its goals.

But the ambassador says the Canadian government has not received a formal, written funding request from the organization.

All that aside, he says, Canada plans to offer its full support to the reconciliation mechanism that will eventually be adopted by the Afghan government.

Reconciliation efforts were among the six items listed earlier this month as Canadian priorities in Afghanistan. The government pledged $14 million over three years for such efforts.

"We are prepared to support that kind of political reconciliation," Lalani says.

"I think what people are looking at now would be a bit more structured."

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A.R. Khan, a Kandahar-based journalist, did additional reporting and provided translation during the interviews.

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