In Afghanistan the government system remains greatly centralized. Major authorities are concentrated to presidential palace. When it comes to appointment of provincial/district mayors and governors and judicial authorities, selection of ministers and senators or decision on any other important national issue President of Afghanistan serves as one-man army to issue decrees.

This is the President who has the right to select and this is the public who do have the right to elect. Only people with close ties to high government authorities can secure important positions in the government. Such people can become mayors, governors, senators and high government officials.

Such trends have immensely contributed to the high level of corruption in government entities. The problem of corruption has always remained one of the top agendas on the conferences held on Afghanistan in the recent years. Corruption has hampered Afghanistan’s social, economic and political development in the last ten years – an era that was deemed as a ‘golden opportunity’ for the people of Afghanistan to develop and reconstruct their country.

To help Afghanistan come out of the chaos it is facing, there has always been a very high demand for reforms in the government. Even the new US Ambassador to Afghanistan, James Cunningham, said on Monday that the Afghan government needs to make reforms and fulfill its responsibilities in order to gain US political and economic support.

In the Tokyo conference held last month, the world pledged $16 billion of aid for Afghanistan. Nonetheless, Afghanistan would only able to receive those funds if its government takes effective measures to tackle the rampant corruption and bring the needed reforms.

Karzai administration, despite knowing everything, turns a deaf ear to valid demands of the people of Afghanistan and the international community. The only step Mr. Karzai has taken so far to clean his government of corruption came on 26 July.

In a decree, Mr. Karzai ordered certain key ministries and other government bodies to take specific measures for elimination of corruption and report within a fixed deadline (in months) to the presidential palace. Karzai ordered central ministries, prosecutors and judiciary to fight bribery, nepotism and cronyism. Nonetheless, the Afghan parliament called his decree as ‘ridiculous’ and urged him to first clean his palace. Also, the speaker of Afghanistan’s Senate has called upon President Karzai to fight corruption within his family members.

At the crucial juncture where Afghanistan is standing today, bringing some key reforms in the government and fighting corruption are crucial for the future of Afghanistan. But the Afghan government lacks any political will to bring reforms or fight corruption and that is quite regretful.