KABUL - Michael Hartmann, Chief of the Rule-of-Law Unit of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has said that if criminals continue to steal money provided in aid to Afghanistan, no country will be prepared in future to support Afghanistan.
He said that the world wants to see that there is a fight going on against corruption in Afghanistan. He asked the national unity government to convict corrupt elements regardless of their positions.
"The Afghan people are tired of this and the Afghan people want a change, and the family of nations needs to be assured that it is being tackled, because no government or people want to provide support if the support is stolen by criminals," said Hartmann.
He said that the international community is committed to helping Afghanistan recuperate the money that had been transferred into foreign accounts by some lawbreakers and government officials and that the US is ready to help the country bring them to justice.
Meanwhile, corruption monitoring groups have said that the government of Afghanistan has failed to deliver on its commitments to fight corruption in the country.
"The posts which have more income sources are reportedly exchanged and sold out, in such a situation, when someone buys a post, definitely he will misuse all resources under his authority and he commits embezzlement and shares it with his colleagues," said Abdul Aziz Aryayee, a member of the Joint Anti-Corruption Evaluation Committee.
The Afghan government has come under mounting pressure by its international partners in recent years for not addressing the issue of corruption in Afghanistan systematically.
In a recent statement, former president Hamid Karzai said that he did not take action against corrupt circles so as to avoid chaos and uncertainty in the country. However, the national unity government under President Ashraf Ghani and his CEO Abdullah Abdullah pledged to deal with corruption solidly regardless of someone's official post or position.
As part of government's counter-corruption policy, last month the Ghani administration announced the opening of the anti-corruption justice center tasked to prosecute all government officials involved in corruption. But the center is yet to start work.
"National unity government is committed to fighting corruption in the country. Because of this, the government announced the opening of the anti-corruption justice center, soon you will see more coherent actions in this respect," said deputy presidential spokesman Shahhussain Murtazawi.
"We need a justice-oriented system, a system that is committed to the implementation of justice and law," said Rafiullah Bedar, spokesman for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
The issue of corruption in Afghanistan not only affects infrastructure and economic development but also damages the country's image abroad.
Back in May, then British Prime Minister David Cameron in a conversion with Queen Elizabeth called Afghanistan a fantastically corrupt country.(Tolonews)