Corruption on the rise in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, corruption is increasingly undermining the legitimacy of President Hamid Karzai’s government. This is what Integrity Watch Afghanistan, a Kabul-based organisation, concludes from an opinion poll. Approximately half of the 1250 respondents stated that they had given a bribe at least once in the past year; every second public servant is perceived as being corrupt. According to IWA estimates, Afghan households paid $ 100 in bribes on average in the past year. The Afghan courts, followed by the Ministry of the Interior and the police were considered the most corrupt government institutions. According to approximately 60 % of the respondents, the present government is more corrupt than the Taliban and previous Mujahideen and Communist rulers. “Corruption is very dangerous for a country which is on the path to be reconstructed, where the legitimacy of the new state is very necessary,” said IWA Director Lorenzo Delesgues. (ell)