Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Saturday, July 6th, 2024

No Significant Measure in Place to Curb Corruption

People are sick of paying millions of Afghanis in bribes each year for receiving basic government services for which they are already paying in forms of various kinds of taxes. With no one giving ear to their voices, people have become totally hopeless. In the public eyes, the credibility of government is falling swiftly and they see no practicable measures in place to tackle the issue of corruption.

Very unfortunately, bribery has turned into a culture in Afghanistan. This trend has economically pressed the poor section that forms more than sixty percent of Afghanistan’s population. Nepotism in government offices is another problem the Afghans have to face on daily basis.

There is not merely domestic pressure on the government for not having achieved any significant success against the deep-rooted corruption in the national system but the international community has also emphasized more efforts in this regard. No significant effort is in place to counter the growth of corruption in Afghanistan, although such a measure is the need of time in the country.

The present administration has no proper answer and there is true willingness to fight corruption. In the government’s point of view, foreigners are majorly responsible for vastly spreading corruption. President Hamid Karzai has time and again stressed over this point. Nonetheless, the government has failed to impart any sorts of evidences as demanded by authorities in foreign organizations working inside of Afghanistan.

Reason for failing to produce any kind of such evidence is clear. The government seems to have no control over the great number of contracts being executed by foreign organizations. The foreigners can be responsible for the corruption but the government needs to clean itself first. In other words the government must not escape from its responsibilities. It must also use its powers to ask foreign organization for transparency and accountability. 

We must not neglect the fact that corruption has a great role in escalation of insecurity across Afghanistan. With deep corruption existing in its systems, it seems improbable for the government to successfully address serious problems like weak governance, limited rule of law and other political, economic and social issues. To all the factors contributing to the failure of government in various sectors, corruption has a prominent contribution.

Until the law makers become the law protectors instead of law breakers, corruption and problems given birth by it will persist. It is not so that the government has not taken measures to tackle corruption but they have been insignificant and insufficient.