Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Anti-Graft Steps on but Follow-up Action Needed: MEC

Anti-Graft Steps on but Follow-up  Action Needed: MEC

KABUL - The evolution of the Anti-Corruption Justice Centre (ACJC), which swung into action in November 2016 with a few hiccups, into an effective judicial device is seen as the most encouraging development.
In its quarterly report for 2017, the Anti-Corruption Monitory and Evaluation Committee (MEC) praised the Centre’s work. However, it underlined the need for concerted efforts to eliminate the scourge.
Positives:
In January alone, the ACJC processed at least 60 cases involving government officials who were accused of embezzlement, bribery, usurpation of public land and illegal mining, according to the Attorney General’s Off
On January 9, the ACJC court sentenced General Abdul Wasey Raofi, head of monitoring for the Procurement Department of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, to 12 years imprisonment on charges of bribery.
The Center also convicted five Ministry of Finance employees for bribery and in March, sentenced four officials to prison for their involvement in embezzling funds in the Khawja Rawash Housing Project.
The corruption case of Kamran Alizai, Chairman of Herat Provincial Council, received much media attention. The ACJC primary court gave Alizai two years and six months jail term for misuse of authority, interference in the affairs of Herat Attorney General’s Office and in the appointments of high-ranking provincial officials.
A number of other corruption-related detentions, dismissals and suspensions of high-ranking officials occurred in the first months of 2017. In January, Abdul Razaq Wahidi, the minister of communications and information technology, was suspended
Later in the month, President Ghani ordered dismissal of heads of the Procurement Department of the Ministry of Interior Affairs who had worked in that department in the past ten years and the AGO announced the opening of all MoI contract-related corruption cases for the years 2012 to 2015.
The Ministry of Defence said at the end of March that in the last six months it had dismissed about 1400 officials on corruption charges and had replaced them with young and committed individuals. 
At the end of January, the AGO ordered the suspension of at least 17 officials of the Ministry of Justice’s Directorate of Law (Huquq) over their misuse of authority.
Three custom officials in Herat, a District Chief in Paktika, a former shareholder of Kabul Bank and an army corps commander with the rank of Lt. General were arrested on various corruption charges.
Perhaps the most hopeful sign of Afghanistan’s fight against corruption was embodied in a public rally in Herat, where demonstrators, organized by provincial civil society groups, conveyed their condemnation of corruption by burning a symbolic ‘corruption dummy’ in front of the governor’s office.   
Negatives:
While some anti-corruption announcements appeared positive, they raised concerns about appropriate and result-based follow-up action. For instance, on January 10, the High Office of Anti-Corruption Oversight announced that it would ask high-ranking government officials to register their assets.
The identification of those who fail to comply, the HOO said would be shared with the public. No progress report on the asset registration process has been made public, nor any non-compliant official named so far. 
A Wolesi Jirga (lower house of the parliament) member claimed on February 27 that 70 percent of appointments at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the past two years were made illegally. No apparent follow-up action has so far been taken on this significant claim of corruption.
On March 25, the Ministry of Defence announced it has “swapped” posts of at least 1000 officials accused of corruption in MoD’s procurement and finance departments.
While the MoD should be commended for identifying its corrupt officials, its choice of remedy is highly questionable.
Officials at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said in March from the 10 percent levy on top-up telecom cards, but the method of tax collection remains to be vulnerable to embezzlement.
While identifying the problem is a positive step at MoCIT, taking corrective action is still not in sight.
A number of reports published last quarter highlighted the continued gravity of corruption in Afghanistan. The Afghan Anti-Corruption Network’s March report reveals increased corruption in the mining sector. The report states that at least 217 mining contracts will be given to powerful figures and those connected to MPs and government officials in exchange for bribes of at least USD 100,000 for each contract.
Integrity Watch Afghanistan’s biennial National Corruption Survey, released at the end of 2016, reflects an increased perception of corruption among the public, with 71 percent of those surveyed saying that corruption has worsened in the past two years.
IWA estimates that Afghans paid USD2.9 billion in bribes in 2016, an increase from USD1.9 billion estimated by the organization for 2014.
A report released in mid-March by Construction Sector Transparency Initiative Afghanistan (CSTIA) revealed over the past 15 years, billions of dollars had been embezzled in infrastructure projects due to lack of transparency.
According to this report, awarding contracts based on favoritism has greatly contributed to the problems that plague implementation of construction projects.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John F. Sopko bluntly stated in March: “Without question, the top two challenges in Afghanistan are corruption and the lack of capacity in Afghan security forces.”
Meanwhile, the European Union took on the slow pace of reform in the Afghan justice sector. “Today the judiciary is too often a tool for the powerful and rich and it is not serving ordinary citizens who suffer from injustice fed by corruption,” stated EU ambassador Franz-Michael Mellbin on March 26.
In March, on the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of Farkhunda Malikzada's mob lynching in Kabul, the Center for Investigative Journalism published a report detailing the failure of the system in bringing the culprits to justice.
The report claims that despite the findings of the Independent Association of Defence Lawyers, corruption in its various forms and in all relevant state institutions has prevented the Supreme Court to finalise this case.
NATO Resolute Support Mission Commander Gen. Nicholson also said the biggest challenges facing Afghanistan this year was leadership and corruption in the Afghan military. (Pajhwok)