The Afghan leader has been defying US pressure to sack an allegedly corrupt minister for over a year, according to some of the latest diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, the whistleblower website.Secret diplomatic records showed Ismail Khan - privately termed "the worst" by US officials - kept his job at an agency that controls $2bn in international projects.
Ismail is a hero of the war against the Soviets. He used to rule Herat as his personal fiefdom. Karzai had no way of dislodging him, so he had to bribe him out with a ministry in Kabul. If he goes back on his deal Ismail may very well just move back to Herat, from whence he'll never leave.
The refusal to remove the official despite threats to end US aid highlights how little influence the US has over Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai on issues such as corruption.
Or how out of touch with the ins and outs of Afghan power politix the State Department is...
The state department correspondence was written as Karzai was assembling a cabinet shortly after his 2009 re-election. Reining in corruption is seen as vital to Afghanistan's long-term stability.
Maybe he's changed, but Ismail used to be a paragon of probity in comparison to brutes like Gul Agha Shirzai
Gul Agha Shirzai is the former governor of Kandahar province. The Taliban actually got their start chasing him from office -- his corruption and cruelty got them lots of local support. After the Talibs were chased out Karzai appointed somebody else as governor of Kandahar and Gul Agha chased him out. He was eventually enticed out of his old stomping grounds by giving him the governorship of Nangahar.
Last month, Barack
B.O.Obama, the US president, cited an urgent need for political and economic progress in Afghanistan. But US aid to Afghanistan has continued despite the dispute over Ismail Khan.
Karl Eikenberry, the US ambassador, pressured Karzai to remove Khan, a once powerful military commander, from the top of the energy and water ministry, according to two state department reports written at the time by US embassy officials in Kabul. They were disclosed last month by WikiLeaks.
A December 2009 memorandum distributed internally under Eikenberry's name described Khan as "the worst of Karzai's choices" for cabinet members. "This former warlord is known for his corruption and ineffectiveness at the energy ministry," the memo said.
Gul Agha is still merrily oppressing the population of Nangahar...
US threats
Even with US threats to withhold aid, Karzai rejected requests to replace Khan.
This is known in the diplo trade as "self preservation."
Asked earlier in 2010 about the corruption allegations, Khan told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency that there were not any widespread problems of corruption or mismanagement. "No money is missing from the ministry," he said. "All the income goes directly to the bank."
Khan said he was unaware of any complaints against him or the ministry. "If there have been complaints, nobody has come to me to tell me," he said.
In Afghanistan this is known as "good sense."
Concerns about Khan and his ministry surfaced soon after he took over the agency in 2004. Consultants hired to identify problems in the ministry estimated that corruption contributed to the loss of $100 million or more each year from the country's electricity system that should go back to the Afghan government, according to reports produced for the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
They'da just pissed it away on dancing boys and new Land Cruisers.
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Khan had a troubled history before heading the ministry. As governor of Herat province in 2003, he refused to turn over millions in monthly customs fees to the central government. Karzai has embraced several former regional commanders in his efforts to unify the country.
He "embraced" them because they were strong enough to throw him out if he got too pushy.They're also the guys who actually (unlike the Taliban) fought the Soviets and who kicked the Taliban out. Collectively they made up the Northern Alliance, which was the legitimate government of Afghanistan in 2001 -- they had the UN seat and the only countries that recognized Mullah Omar's government were Pakistain, Soddy Arabia, and the UAE.
The ministry deals in tens of millions of dollars in cash annually. Each year, however, it reports collecting far less in revenue than the retail value of the electricity it produces for customers. Khan has explained the gap by saying it cost more to produce the electricity than customers pay.
That could very well be true, since the price is set by the government rather than by markets and the infrastructure ain't what you'd call sophisticated...
As much as 20 per cent of the shortfall is the result of electricity lost due to a substandard distribution and transmission system, according to a report from USAID.
I just said that.
Nearly all transactions in Afghanistan take place with cash, so there are no personal checques or credit card trails to document utility payments.
Nobody seems to ask for a receipt, either.