KABUL (PAN): The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will provide the Afghan Ministry of Education a sum of 35 million afghanis to fight the scourge of corruption.
An agreement to the effect was signed Tuesday between Education Minister Dr. Ghulam Farooq Wardak and UNDP Country Director in Afghanistan Manoj Basnyat.
"We want to banish corruption from the Ministry of Education," Wardak told reporters in Kabul after signing the agreement. However, he insisted corruption was not as rampant in his ministry as in other government institutions.
Wardak linked the low level of graft in his ministry to the monitoring of expenditures by donors, saying 91 percent of the education development budget was used to fund salaries through banks.
"The issue I am concerned about pertains to contracts between education officials and donors. Although I don't have any evidence to prove corruption in such contracts, I want more transparency in this regard," he observed.
An anti-corruption campaign, to be launched soon, would cover different departments of the ministry, he said. The drive would involve 50 Afghan experts who would carry it forward in cooperation with an international consultant.
"Identifying reasons for graft in educational institutions and addressing them, and establishing an effective mechanism to prevent the menace are the key tasks of the campaign," Wardak explained.
Basnyat said the UNDP had already supported such campaigns at the Ministries of Finance and Interior Affairs, as well as the Audit and Control Office. He stressed continued efforts to eliminate corruption from government departments.
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