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Afghanistan
Afghan government more corrupt than Taleban
2007-03-20
Filed under 'same old, same old'.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Bribery and corruption are pervasive in Afghanistan’s current government, according to a survey released Monday that said most Afghans believe their leaders are more corrupt than the Soviet-backed government in the 1980s or the Taleban-run government in the 1990s.

About 60 percent of respondents said the current administration is more corrupt than any other in the past two decades, said the report by Integrity Watch Afghanistan, an independent group. 'Over the last five years, corruption has soared to levels not seen in previous administrations,’ it said. Money can buy government appointments, bypass justice or evade police,’ while the government is unable or unwilling to seriously tackle corruption,’ it said. The group said it interviewed 1,258 Afghans for the study.

The courts and the Interior Ministry were highlighted as the most corrupt institutions. The group’s executive director, Lorenzo Delesgues, pointed to weak law enforcement as a main reason for corruption and bribery. Corruption has undermined the legitimacy of the state,’ Delesgues told a news conference.

The group, which conducted the survey in 13 provinces, said 93 percent of the respondents believed that bribes had to be paid for more than half of public services and administrative work. The report said impunity and unaccountability of civil servants underpinned corruption. Despite the reports of widespread bribery and corruption, 45 percent of respondents said corruption had little or no effect on their households.

Corruption in Afghanistan is fueled by low-paid government workers who pad their salaries by demanding bribes to process simple paperwork. Many Afghans pay bribes to avoid trouble with police, who make about US$70 (Ð52.53) a month. The country’s booming heroin trade also leads to corruption, with police and other government officials looking the other way after payoffs by farmers and drug-runners.

Even Afghanistan’s anti-corruption chief, Izzatullah Wasifi, has a troubling past. A recent Associated Press investigation found he was convicted two decades ago for selling heroin in the United States. Wasifi is adamant his drug conviction should not affect his ability to serve in government, and compares his situation to US President George W. Bush, who was once arrested in 1976 for drunk driving.
Bad comparison.
He points to his record as governor of western Farah province, where opium production dropped 25 percent during his 14-month tenure before he took his current position. Officials who worked with Wasifi in Farah mostly commended his work after he paid them to do so.
Posted by:Steve White

#10  Excellent! Watch the balance sheets, folks! You make me happy fore bed.
Posted by: newc   2007-03-20 22:50  

#9  Oh, we're going backwards? Then he dropped at least one...
Posted by: tu3031   2007-03-20 16:01  

#8  I thought he added one.
Posted by: tu3031   2007-03-20 15:58  

#7  Massachusetts #20.

You dropped a zero, Besoeker.
Posted by: Steve White   2007-03-20 15:50  

#6  Massachusetts #20.
Posted by: Besoeker   2007-03-20 08:47  

#5  And France is #18, and Belgium is #19....
Posted by: Bobby   2007-03-20 05:44  

#4  For those who are curious, the USA is #17.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-03-20 03:53  

#3  I wonder how they stack up in the global bribery competition

Below are some results from Transparency International's 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index

Out of 159 countries, with Bangladesh and Chad at the very bottom and Iceland, Finland, New Zealand and Denmark in descending order from the top, Afghanistan is at #117:

Vietnam
Zambia
Zimbabwe [Hard to believe Mugabe is doing a better job than Karzai]
Afghanistan - #117
Bolivia
Ecuador
Posted by: Zenster   2007-03-20 03:51  

#2  Wasifi is adamant his drug conviction should not affect his ability to serve in government, and compares his situation to US President George W. Bush, who was once arrested in 1976 for drunk driving.

These guys just don't get it. DUI is bad enough, but it won't lead to large scale suffering like contributing to the drug trade. Sad thing is he wouldn't be saying it if it wasn't accepted by those who share his culture. Minimization and denial reign supreme. Unless they get the short end of the stick, then it's blood feud for the next 10 generations that it will take for the incident to be forgotten.
Posted by: gorb   2007-03-20 02:25  

#1   Sounds like a pretty big improvement to me. Talibunnies - destroy priceless cultural artifacts, beat you for shaving, kill girls for getting an education .... control everything you think and do.
Afghan Government - take bribes like the rest of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, most of Asia and half of Europe.

Gotta remember, it's a tribal society. The sheik used to get his take, now it's the new power in town.

I wonder how they stack up in the global bribery competition(in purchasing power parity terms as well as % of GDP. That would make a good dissertation, assuming you survived the research).
Posted by: Snoluns Ebboluth3749   2007-03-20 01:56  

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