MEC assails govt over ignoring its proposals

KABUL would have scored higher in this year’s Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index if the government had effectively implemented its recommendations.

The Berlin-based corruption-fighting organization, Transparency International, polled thousands of people in 177 countries and territories about how they perceived corruption in the public sector.

Seventy percent of those countries scored below 50 with Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia each scoring 8 in a three-way tie for most corrupt.

“The surveys underlying the Corruption Perception Index score for Afghanistan measure expert perceptions on prosecution and penalization of public officeholders who abuse their positions,” the MEC said in a statement.

It said corruption was affecting businesses in Afghanistan, accountability of the executive and public employees and access to information.

As an independent voice monitoring national and international anti-corruption efforts in Afghanistan, the MEC said it had issued the government several recommendations addressing those critical points over the past years.

“These include recommendations to pass the Access to Information Law, to include anti-corruption considerations in the government’s Doing Business Action Plan and to enhance accountability in the justice sector.”

Drago Kos, MEC’s current chair, said “many of the underlying issues affecting the Corruption Perception Index score are consistent with concerns raised by MEC.”

He said Afghanistan could have scored higher if the government had effectively implemented MEC’s recommendations.

The MEC said it was again calling on the government to implement all of its recommendations, particularly those related to justice and governance, to effectively fight corruption.

pr/ma

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