Corruption is rampant and has become more entrenched in all areas of life in Afghanistan, and the Afghan government is under increased pressure to address the issue. Demands for action from within Afghan society, as well as from the international community, have reached an unprecedented level. The concerns expressed by voices within Afghanistan may slightly differ from those of the international community. However, both are based on the assumption that corruption derails the fundamental gains of Afghanistan achieved since the end of 2001. Corruption threatens the legitimacy of state-building, badly affects state-society relations, feeds frustration and the support for the insurgency, leads to increasing inequality (which spurs social conflict, violates basic human rights on a daily basis and impedes the rule of law according to Afghan standards), hinders access to basic public services (which impacts the poor most severely), and has a major negative effect on economic development.
This is the second corruption survey produced by Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) in a continuous effort to increase transparency, integrity and accountability through policy-oriented research. The survey was conducted at the end of 2009 in 32 provinces of Afghanistan and it is the first truly national corruption survey. Previous surveys, both by IWA and other agencies, have covered only parts of Afghanistan’s population and geography.
Recommendations
•Special attention is needed to address corruption in the judiciary and, notably, at the offices of district attorneys and in the courts. In the absence of an effective enforcement approach, the government should establish more administrative sanctions that can be used to complement criminal sanctions. Furthermore, the participation of civil society and the public should be encouraged in court hearings.
•Corruption in land issues has affected 15% of households. There is a need for the Afghan government to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the various departments and ministries involved in issues related to land. There is also a need for more transparency in land distribution and land purchase transactions by the government. Citizens and civil society organizations should have access to the relevant decision-making, the criteria guiding decision-making and lists of those who have benefitted from land distribution.
•Access to information is key in reducing corruption. The occasions for bribery and the presence of professional commission takers are increased if administrative procedures are too complex and information is scarce. The Afghan government should establish the legal foundation for the access of citizens to information of the state based on article 50 of the Afghan Constitution. Furthermore, each department should display and make accessible to pubic service users the procedures and timelines needed for obtaining specific services. Finally, a hotline should be provided so that public service users may report bribes paid to civil servants.
•The Ministry of Irrigation, Water and Electricity, as well as the state-run enterprise Brishna, which is responsible for providing electricity, and other relevant departments should establish and display clear criteria for benefitting from the government provision of electricity. They should also encourage the monitoring of electricity provision by town and village councils. Furthermore, civil society organizations should monitor and survey state policies to verify that they equitably address the needs of the Afghan population.
•Public officials who are most exposed to bribery should be subject to the asset and income declaration program of the High Office of Oversight, and their asset and income declarations should be regularly checked. The relevant information regarding the assets and incomes of such civil servants, as well as the results of the verification process, should be displayed for the public at the places of work of these civil servants.
•The High Office of Oversight should extend its leading efforts to other relevant agencies so as to simplify procedures for services based on clear criteria, such as in areas in which corruption leads to the most significant losses in the perception of state legitimacy, in which poor people and poor households are most affected, and which are the most important for the operation of businesses and that drive economic development.
•The new penal code that is currently being reviewed should take emerging forms of corruption into account and be based on people’s perceptions of these practices. Many emerging forms of corruption, such as sexual extortion and court tempering, that have been identified by the survey respondents are not being given sufficient attention and have not been the focus of the officials in charge of reviewing the penal code.
•The government should encourage the participation of civil society in preventing corruption in basic social services such as health and education. This can be accomplished, in particular, by involving local communities in monitoring decision-making processes, as well as in budget tracking at the village and district levels and in monitoring the quality of the actual services delivered.
