President Karzai’s decree to combat corruption has produced little results on the ground, concludes Kreshma Fakhri.
There was cautious optimism in July this year when the president announced
There was cautious optimism in July this year when the president announced an executive decree focusing on the fight against corruption. A colossal document (23 pages in Dari), it was divided in sections, some addressed to all government institutions and others directed towards specific institutions.
Four months later a progress report compiled through discussions with members of parliament and political observers reveals there has been no tangible victories in efforts to eliminate corruption.
Decree no. 45 of July 26, 2012 was partly in response to pressure on the Karzai government to rein in rampant corruption at international conferences on Afghanistan like the Tokyo conference earlier that month. The Afghan government admitted in the decree that the country faced four major challenges: bad governance, corruption, lack of rule of law and economic dependence on donors.
The Office of Administrative Affairs and the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers were entrusted with the task of monitoring the implementation of the decree and reporting the implementation to the president and the cabinet.
Under scrutiny is the spending of budgets by the ministries, the enactment of laws by Parliament, progress in corruption cases, and visits to provinces by MPs among many others.
A review reveals Afghanistan has not made any breakthroughs in efforts to counter corruption. It is still the world’s most corrupt nation along with Somalia and North Korea.
Endemic situation
Qurban Ali Orfani, MP from Kabul, said the president’s anti-corruption initiative was “good propaganda” but not practical. “President Karzai has issued the decree to take the heat off criticism from western donors who want to work with Afghanistan,” he said. The government was promised 16 billion USD in civilian aid after foreign forces leave the country at the Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan in July. The pledge came after Karzai agreed to new conditions to deal with endemic corruption.
Abdul Rauf, member of the parliamentary Judicial and Justice Committee, said “some papers” have been written in government offices to show a decrease in corruption “but administrative corruption is as rampant and there has been no relief to communities.”
Well-known political analyst Fazal Rahman Orya said the decree could not be called an executive order. “It is a trick played by Karzai on the people and the international community,” he said. “The decree cannot do anything, and corruption is increasing day by day.”
However, there is support for Karzai from the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption. Mohammad Amin Khuramji, deputy head, explained the decree has been “very effective” because “we had set a series of criteria for some of the institutions to consider and put in practice like the employment of people.” The single drawback has been the rushed timelines, he said.
Yama Torabi from Integrity Watch was also a supporter. “The result of the decree has been positive in that it has at least framed a set of rules for government offices to be responsible in cases that relate to administrative corruption.”
Izatullah Wasifi, the former head of the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption, was not impressed. He did not consider the decree a serious step in the fight to counter corruption.
According to Torabi, “Unfortunately we have not had much progress in the attempt to eliminate corruption in public services despite efforts to institutionalise transparency. I think Afghanistan is on the same level as it was in the past.”
Reasons for failure
Orfani, the parliamentarian from Kabul, blamed the rot on the government’s lack of commitment to clean up corruption in the administration. “It is true they (government) established many commissions. But this itself is evidence there is no strong intention,” he said. Embezzlement of public funds and corruption in government offices have become rampant. It is said the staff in offices to counter corruption are open to taking bribes.
Torabi expressed similar views. “We receive complaints from people who say the officers of High Office of Oversight and Anti-corruption are themselves involved in bribery.”
Minister of Finance Hazrat Omar Zakhelwal blamed the multiple agencies entrusted with the task of monitoring corruption of “perpetuating corruption”. “The presence of so many supervisory organs in tax and custom offices causes the corruption not reform,” he said. “Many people come to our office and stay for months to investigate. The results of the investigation are never known. Definitely there is a compromise. When an officer is compelled to compromise he has to perpetuate the corruption.”
Mohammad Shafiq Hamdam, chairman of the Afghan Anti-Corruption Network, said graft has thwarted the attempts to clean up corruption. “We have always faced complaints that when people go to investigate they take a bribe to hide the facts.”
According to Rahmatullah Nazari, the deputy attorney general, there are several dossiers on staff members who were involved in corruption.
The presidential decree had given the Supreme Court six months to “decide and settle all cases, especially cases related to administrative corruption, land expropriation and serial killings.” It has proved far too ambitious.
