Administrative corruption in Afghanistan has seriously challenged the government and hindered it from reaching its objectives. The extension of corruption prompted the state to take practical step in reducing this issue. The national strategy for combating administrative corruption was outlined and prioritized by the government. It is an undeniable fact that lack of strategy, supervision and an effective legal system have undermined the sense of responsibility in the society and paved the ground for further corruption. To remedy this problem, the state will have to adopt strict measure so as to implement law, reform and strengthen legal and judicial system based on rule of law, human rights principle, and justice. The national anti-corruption strategy has been drafted with the aim of campaigning strongly against administrative corruption. This is worth saying that a fundamental campaign against the root causes of this phenomenon is of high significance. Furthermore, a strong political determination within the government’s body for rooting out administrative corruption is very critical. To mitigate the administrative corruption, implementing law, endorsing proportionate punishment for the perpetrators and monitoring legal and judicial institutions are likely to be effective enough.
In addition, reforming and revising laws are considered instrumental and will smooth the way for justice and transparency. However, decreasing and eliminating corruption in state departments and institutions are far more significant. Disregarding this issue will deteriorate the condition in the country and it will go from bad to worse. Therefore, the government seeks to pay especial heed in this respect so as to meet the needs and demands of the citizens. In short, considering this event will certainly ensure the right implementation of law.
In other words, pay attention to both the aforementioned cases will be important. For instance, reforming law, regulation and legislative documents will remove ambiguities and confusion in laws and legislative documents and will hamper the way for exploitation. As a result, the opportunists will fail to exploit the void of law for their own interests.
The significance of supervising the rule of law and regulation is also highly noteworthy. Based on its importance, Afghan government has adopted the national anti-corruption strategy and discussed this issue comprehensively at the meeting of the Supreme Council on the Rule of Law. In the current month of 1396, Afghan calendar, Supreme Council for the Rule of Law and anti-corruption campaign – which was also attended by Second Vice President Sarwar Danish – led by Afghan President called the national anti-corruption strategy a highly effective and beneficial plan in terms of combating administrative corruption. The solution to the current unsatisfactory situation and backbreaking challenges in several departments were stated in this plan. Additionally, the responsibilities of the government and measurements which are supposed to be adopted by it were noted, too. In short, five issues have been emphasized such as sound leadership, a strong determination for government leadership including transparency in policies, reform in security sector, transparency in recruitment through the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission, legal prosecution of those committing administrative corruption, and sound financial management. All the said issues are important and are believed to play a key role in combating administrative corruption.
In connection with this strategy, all institutions and departments are deemed responsible in cooperating with law-enforcing agencies so as to enhance this plan. According to law-enforcing agencies, this strategy is realistic and practicable in real life. Its implementation will be fruitful in mitigating administrative corruption.
This point should be taken serious that implementing this strategy is in need of collective cooperation and national mobilization. The international community and Afghanistan’s allies also called this document an important step by Afghan government and declared their support for its implementation. They further underlined the cooperation of all state institutions for enforcing this strategy. It is hoped that justice and the rule of law will be ensured and administrative corruption will be rooted out with the implementation of this national document.
Since the government promised to fight against administrative corruption and reform administrative system, now it is taking satisfactory step in this regard. For instance, maintaining “public law and order” and eliminating “every kind of administrative corruption” is mentioned in the preamble of Afghan Constitution. It is further stated in article 5o, “The state shall adopt necessary measures to create a healthy administration and realize reforms in the administrative system of the country. The administration shall perform its duties with complete neutrality and in compliance with the provisions of the laws….”
So, the mentioned strategy is hoped to reduce administrative corruption, bring structural reforms in institutions and pave the ground for transparency in implementing law.