The main findings

Impact of Corruption on the population

The survey indicates that households in villages close to cities are more likely to pay bribes than those in remote villages or in cities. Single-breadwinner households with an income of less than 3,000 Afs (60 USD) are the most exposed to bribery. Poor households with incomes of less than 3,000 Afs (60 USD) considered corruption as the biggest challenge in Afghanistan. Survey findings show that households in rural areas consisting mainly of poor farmers are more likely to pay bribes than those in urban areas.

Corruption can be unavoidable in securing one’s own income

13% of households stated that they had paid bribes to secure their own sources of income. Additionally, the survey shows that the professions that reported the highest number of bribery experiences to maintain employment were civil servants and self-employed professionals, both at 29%. Civil servants stated that they had to give their supervisors bribes and gifts to secure their jobs, while self-employed respondents had to pay bribes to those institutions in charge of regulating businesses, such as the municipalities and the Ministry of Commerce.

Corruption is also endemic and entrenched in Afghanistan.

A majority of people (70%) perceives it as a common occurrence and a normal of way of doing business with the state. It is no longer limited to the experience of urban citizens, who have traditionally been faced with corruption in their relations with state officials. It now affects rural areas, where 75% of the Afghan population lives. Even people living in the most remote villages have not been spared and have experienced levels of corruption comparable with that experienced by the urban population. Afghans (23%) who are affected by corruption quite often face it regularly. The majority of the respondents (57%) who had experienced corruption did so at least twice during the 12 months that preceded the interviews.