During his recent visit to India, President Hamid Karzai was asked why his administration failed to curb the rampant corruption in Afghanistan despite criticisms. The President said if Afghan government is criticized for corruption by countries such as Norway or Denmark, he would take it serious and would take necessary measures in the regard. Nevertheless, if the United States points finger at his administration for not curbing corruption, it would be funny. President Karzai’s remark is indeed not surprising. In the past too, he has blamed the foreigners for massive corruption in Afghanistan.
In Karzai’s point of view, foreigners, especially the US, are majorly responsible for spreading corruption in Afghanistan. He has time and again stressed over this point, although his government has failed to impart any sorts of evidences as demanded by authorities in foreign organizations working inside Afghanistan. The government seems to have no control over the great number of contracts being executed by foreign organizations or carried out through local contractors by them.
If to President Karzai criticism from the US is funny, what about the UN and other organizations such as Transparency International that regularly reports rampant corruption in Afghanistan. Afghanistan stands in the list of most corrupt countries of the world in corruption index of Transparency International. Amidst that bothersome status, the UN in February came up with another disappointing report on the level of corruption in Afghanistan. According to the UN, the cost of corruption in Afghanistan rose sharply last year to $3.9 billion, and half of all Afghans bribed public officials for services.
Another disappointing point revealed in the same report is growth of corruption in Afghanistan’s educational sector. That is a sector in which sincerity, transparency and accountability should be model for the rest of the country. Nonetheless, the agency’s report says that number of Afghans bribing a teacher jumped from 16 percent in 2009 to 51 percent in 2012.
People are sick of paying millions of dollars in bribes each year for receiving basic government services for which they are already paying in forms various kinds of taxes.
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.