Administrative revolution to end graft: Massoud

KABUL (Pajhwok): President’s special representative on reforms and good governance Ahmad Zia Massoud on Tuesday said administrative corruption was a major hurdle to the country’s development and there was no choice but to eliminate the menace.

Addressing a gathering marking International Anti-Corruption Day in Kabul, Massoud stressed the need for laws minimising administrative procedures and overlapping responsibilities. “We live in an administrative chaos and the responsibilities are not clear.”

Massoud criticised the Ministry of Justice and parliament for failing to come up with a draft law on recruitment and selection, saying it was hard to tackle corruption until such laws were introduced.

He also read out a message from President Ashraf Ghani, who said Afghanistan had lost some economic opportunities during the past 13 years due to corruption.

Ghani said corruption had earned Afghanistan a bad name in the comity of nations. He said fighting corruption was his government’s top priority.

Integrity Watch Afghanistan Director Syed Ikram Afzali said their findings showed more than one million acres of land had been usurped and $1 billion paid in bribe this solar year alone.

“We are marking anti-corruption day at a time when government departments are drowned in corruption.”

Afzali asked the government to end the culture of impunity and prove in action that it was serious in fighting corruption.

He added if the unity government chose its new Cabinet on the basis of political compromises, then fighting corruption would prove futile as witnessed in the past 13 years.

Afghanistan has climbed to fourth position from the previous first and second among the most corrupt countries on Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.

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