‘Afghan govt more corrupt than Taliban’

KABUL: Bribery and corruption are pervasive in Afghanistan’s current government, according to a survey released on Monday that said most Afghans believe their leaders are more corrupt than the Soviet-backed government in the 1980s or the Taliban-run government in the 1990s.

About 60 per cent of respondents said the current administration is more corrupt than any other in the past two decades, said the report by Integrity Watch Afghanistan, an independent group.

Over the last five years, corruption has soared to levels not seen in previous administrations, it said. Money can buy government appointments, bypass justice or evade police, while the government is unable or unwilling to seriously tackle corruption, it said. The group said it interviewed 1,258 Afghans for the study.

The courts and the Interior Ministry were highlighted as the most corrupt institutions. The group’s executive director, Lorenzo Delesgues, pointed to weak law enforcement as a main reason for corruption and bribery.

Corruption has undermined the legitimacy of the state, Delesgues told a news conference. The group, which conducted the survey in 13 provinces, said 93 per cent of the respondents believed that bribes had to be paid for more than half of public services and administrative work. The report said impunity and unaccountability of civil servants underpinned corruption. Despite the reports of widespread bribery and corruption, 45 per cent of respondents said corruption had little or no effect on their households. The report did not provide a margin of error for the survey.

Corruption in Afghanistan is fuelled by low-paid government workers who pad their salaries by demanding bribes to process simple paperwork. Many Afghans pay bribes to avoid trouble with police, who make about $70 a month.

The country’s booming heroin trade also leads to corruption, with police and other government officials looking the other way after payoffs by farmers and drug-runners. Even Afghanistan’s anti-corruption chief, Izzatullah Wasifi, has a troubling past. A recent Associated Press investigation found he was convicted two decades ago for selling heroin in the United States.

Wasifi is adamant his drug conviction should not affect his ability to serve in government, and compares his situation to US President George W Bush, who was once arrested in 1976 for drunk driving.

He points to his record as governor of western Farah province, where opium production dropped 25 percent during his 14-month tenure before he took his current position. Officials who worked with Wasifi in Farah mostly commended his work.