COMMENTARY BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Poverty and violence are usually portrayed as the biggest challenges confronting Afghanistan. But ask the Afghans themselves, and you get a different answer: corruption is their biggest worry. As revealed in this new UNODC report, for an overwhelming 59% of the population the daily experience of public dishonesty is a bigger concern than insecurity (54%) and unemployment (52%).
President Karzai has recognized that corruption is destroying the country. At the inauguration of his second term in November 2009, he rightly identified "ending the culture of impunity and strengthening integrity as key priorities" for his new administration.
The political will and the analytical tools to make a statistically robust survey of grand-scale profiteering in Afghanistan are not yet available. Therefore, this report looks at the problem of corruption in Afghanistan from a different perspective. It takes a bottom-up look at a problem that affects Afghans on a daily basis: bribery. Yet, this survey, by including some large bribes -- payments of $1000 and above, i.e. more than twice the country's per-capita income -- to an extent does capture some serious corruption cases.
Unlike other corruption reports, this one is not based only on perceptions: in other words, it does not only measure shadows filtered through individual discernment and discontent. It quantifies the actual crime, as reported by the victims. This is the real thing, based on interviews with 7,600 people (a reliable sample) in 12 provincial capitals and more than 1,600 villages around Afghanistan.
Commentary by the executive director A helping hand, not pointing fingers This report was not conceived to embarrass or bash Afghanistan, or to point fingers at particular situations. There are three good reasons for this.
- First, no country is free of corruption. Indeed, in so many countries around the world (rich and poor) similar surveys indicate that corruption is peoples' greatest concern.
- Second, the UNODC ethos is based on constructive engagement: we provide ground-level diagnoses in order to help find national remedies. When it comes to strengthening integrity in governance, our aim is to help Member States implement the world's only universal legally- binding instrument: the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
- Third, in order to make progress, countries need an honest assessment of where they stand -- no ifs and buts. By identifying gaps, countries gain a better idea of what new legislation and measures are needed, and what technical assistance is required.
This survey was conducted, and the report written, with precisely these goals in mind.