SC warns Transparency International of action

KABUL): The Supreme Court on Saturday spurning a recent Transparency International (TI) survey that said the Afghan judiciary and police received larger amounts of bribes than any other institutions.

On July 10, the latest TI study said 60% of Afghans reported they thought the judiciary was the most corrupt government institution. The respondents claimed paying a bribe to the judiciary in one form or another.

But Dr. Abdullah Attayee, the Supreme Court administrative head, faulted the survey and asked the global watchdog for concrete evidence in support of its findings. He denied court officials received bribes from the masses.

If it failed to the relevant produce proofs, the TI office in Afghanistan would be placed under judicial investigation and shut down, he warned.

In an exclusive chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Dr. Attayee accused the international community of seeking to undermine public confidence in the justice sector.

One reason why the foreigners wanted to malign the judiciary was to hide the massive scale of corruption in non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the official argued.

“Foreign assistance to the justice sector has been linked to the eradication of graft. But we say our judicial system has its own principles governing verdicts,” he explained.

Why the people who claimed to have bribed a Supreme Court worker did not approach the control and monitoring section, Dr. Attayee asked, stressing public cooperation with anti-graft efforts.

He tended to question the report’s credibility, saying survey forms had been distributed to people in streets and bazaars. The forms were filled out and returned in the absence of any mechanism to ensure the accuracy of findings, he noted.

“It’s inappropriate that every Tom, Dick, and Harry point an accusing finger at us. We deny unequivocally the TI survey that carries no value for us,” remarked Dr. Attayee, who stressed neutral counter-corruption efforts.

mud

Visits: 1