President Ashraf Ghani suspended six high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Urban Development Affairs along with acting director and deputies of Afghanistan’s Investment Services Agency (AISA) on charges of embezzlement and administrative corruption. According to a statement from the President’s office, the President has requested travel bans for the officials, and their cases are referred to the Office of Attorney General for investigations. This is not the first measure of its kind in fighting large-scale corruption at high government level after takeover of the National Unity Government (NUG) last year. However, it is viewed as a major starting move to address what is deemed as safe havens of high-ranking corrupt officials serving in the government’s key financial and sectoral departments.

The measure is coming as a bold move in fighting large-scale corruption in the government as the anti-corruption campaign in Afghanistan is overshadowed by the worsening security situation and other numerous challenges the new government has been facing in recent months. In an effort for good governance and ensuring the international community of its resolve for reforms, the new unity government has promulgated fighting corruption as one of its top priorities. However, it has been virtually held back by numerous existing challenges from taking the necessary actions for fulfilling the promises made by the leaders of the NUG in this regard. In addition to intensifying security challenges, the government had not been effectively functioning for about seven months after the last year presidential elections due to the sluggish process of formation of government cabinet and filling other key government posts.

With the new government attempting to take concrete actions for tackling the menace of corruption, now hopes for a genuine campaign against corruption at the top-levels is reviving. But doing so will not be an easy task for the government. Fighting corruption is one of the key challenges against the National Unity Government (NUG). Based on rankings provided by international organizations, the government of Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt governments in the world. A large portion of international aid supposed to help Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development as well as funding its military in last fourteen years have been drained by corruption and embezzlement. Based on findings of corruption-monitoring agencies, Afghans pay billions of dollars in bribe to government officials annually. The United Nations has warned that corruption would be “a barrier to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG)”, calling nations for taking strong measures for fighting corruption. The International Transparency, a top global accountability and transparency advocacy organization, has named Afghanistan third most corrupt nation in the world after Somalia and North Korea.

Good governance and eliminating corruption in Afghanistan has been a major goal for the international community supporting the efforts in Afghanistan in last fourteen years. The former governments led by former president Hamid Karzai largely failed in promoting good governance and fighting corruption as part of its anti-corruption obligations to its international supporters and the public in Afghanistan. Efficient governance in Afghanistan was viewed as the only way for the NATO mission to succeed in Afghanistan; however, the international community mostly gave up to their exhaustions over the widespread level of corruption in the country. Despite of huge aid money spent on anti-corruption efforts, Afghan government offices still remain deeply corrupt and ineffective.

The international community’s disappointment at Afghanistan’s former governments’ handling of corruption and governance has led them weary of how their aid money is spent. In Tokyo International Conference on Afghanistan, the international community made conditional pledges for providing Afghanistan financial aid in the upcoming years stressing for more serious actions in tackling corruption by the government of Afghanistan. The last year controversial presidential elections once again dismayed the international community of the trend of reforms in Afghanistan. There has been increasing pressures from Afghanistan’s international donors on the Afghan government to take concrete measures for fighting corruption and making reforms particularly to the country’s election bodies.

The matter of seriously fighting corruption is long overlooked by both the government of Afghanistan and the international community who has been backing Afghanistan in past over a decade is its efforts to promote good governance and get rid of corruption. Many believe that the international community’s focus has been mainly on military efforts rather than making major investments on development and reconstructions along with building an efficient and accountable political system. What is clear is that the international community gradually lost focus on fighting corruption in Afghanistan through pressuring the government and building the capacity of the government institutions. On the Afghan government side, there was no political will for fighting corruption at all. The main factor was that the government had been dealing with insurgency and other challenges, and more importantly, corruption benefited top government officials as well.

The suspension of top officials of one of the key government’s sector departments is of particular importance for the new government’s commitment of zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and creeping embezzlement in governmental offices. It shows there is political will in the new government to promote good governance and seriously fight corruption. In recent months, there have been a number of actions from the President to kick-start the long overlooked matter of eliminating corruption. Ashraf Ghani has portrayed an image of being tough in fighting corruption and embezzlement at top government levels. The new government managed to somehow address the corruption scandal of the Kabul Bank which was seen a major financial scandal for the government. Ashraf Ghani also suspended officials at the procurement department of the Ministry of Defense which was accused of corruption through procurement dealings.

However, despite some promising measures by the new government, there is a long way for proving determination and cohesion of the NUG in fighting corruption. There is resistance to the reform and anti-corruption policies of the government at very top levels of the government. There are huge cases of land seizing cases by top former and current government officials and parliamentarians. Dealing with such large-scale corrupting by the government will create high level political conflicts among the Afghan political elite. With the difficult prospect, there have been good signs for beginning a robust anti-corrupting campaign by the new government.