KABUL - Ahmad Zia Massoud, President Ashraf Ghani's Special Representative on Reform and Good Governance said Saturday that the government does not have the necessary political authority to fight corruption in the country.
He said that thousands of acres of land has been grabbed and there is huge embezzlement in the fuel contracts.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General of Afghanistan has said that the corruption trend is much more dangerous than the issue of militancy in the country.
Massoud went on to say that the money that flowed into the country in recent years has not been spent properly.
"Thousands of acres of land has been grabbed, but no one has the power to bring the land grabbers to justice, major fuel contracts have been signed, but again no one has the power to bring fuel mafia to justice," he said.
The lack of coordination between police and the attorney general and courts, security threats, political inefficiency, cultural issues, lack of monitoring systems over the contracts between donor countries, and bureaucracy in government institutions are apparently the main challenges in the way of fighting corruption, experts have said.
"Corruption is the biggest enemy of the people of Afghanistan. It is a great danger to the people of Afghanistan. Corruption is more dangerous than terrorism and enemies of the people of Afghanistan. It is like a sword beside our heart and we must deal with the issue. Therefore the government of Afghanistan must prioritize fighting corruption and comply with its commitments it made in this respect," AGO Farid Hamidi said.
"There are a lot of cases about those involved in corruption since 1380 (2001). However fate of these cases remains uncertain," said Sharif Sharifi, general director of Supreme Audit Office.
Meanwhile, experts have said that to overcome the issue of corruption, there will be an end to the culture of evasion from the law and just implementation of the law on the criminals.
"Equal implementation of the law must be carried out on all criminals regardless of their political affiliation or group," said Sayed Ghulam Hussain Fakhri, head of Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption.(Tolonews)