KABUL (SW): Despite years of foreign assistance, Afghanistan’s defense structures are still at very high risk of corruption, according to new Transparency International research published today.
The group praised recent procurement reforms efforts initiated by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani but warned that a lack of accountability of senior officials could widen the gap between the government and its people.
The report was released as part of the Government Defense Anti-Corruption Index, which ranks countries on a scale from A (very low level of corruption risk) to F (critical level of corruption risk). Afghanistan was ranked in band E, indicating a very high risk of corruption.
Katherine Dixon, Director of Transparency International Defense and Security said that considering that the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of the Interior budgets absorb more than the next 13 Ministries combined, the obvious risk is that international assistance continues to flow in and straight out of these ministries.
“The international community should get more actively involved too. Alongside training and working with the Afghan government on reform efforts, we need to have a more holistic approach wherein we task and resource not just our development agencies, but also our law enforcement agencies so they can go after corrupt officials hiding their stolen assets in places like London or New York.”, she added.
It was noted that Afghanistan has made a marked improvement in the area of defense procurement but it still has many challenges ahead, and the only way to address these challenges is to do so in a way that empowers Afghan oversight institutions and that rewards reforms for the future. Inspector General’s offices have an important part to play here but so do media, civil society and other oversight bodies, she noted
Sayed Ikram Afzali, Executive Director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan, said on the occasion that corruption is the biggest threat to security in Afghanistan. Pervasive corruption in the defense sector has reduced effectiveness and sustainability of the Afghan security forces, he said.
He went on to say political interferences and misuse of power by warlords within the security forces at the central and local level has prevented Afghan security forces to function effectively and to win public support.
“The National Unity Government must prioritize cleaning up the ranks of the Afghan security forces from existence of warlords to reduce corruption and to stop further politicizing the forces”, he stressed.
Approximately 90-95% of the approximately $ 4+ billion a year funding that will be required to sustain the ANDSF in the coming years comes from donor funding.
The majority of this funding and thus the majority of the country’s military expenditures are off-budget. This is funding that is not reported on by the Afghan government, despite allegations that these funds have been used for illicit activity, including the funding of illegal militias and payments to insurgents.
ENDS
