| | Karzai beefs up anti-graft body AFP
03/18/2010
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KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday boosted the power of an anti-corruption body that had faced fierce accusations of being toothless and half-hearted in its battle to wipe out official graft.
Karzai is under intense pressure from the Western backers that keep him in power to tackle corruption endemic in every walk of Afghan life, including the polls that saw him re-elected last year to a second five-year term.
The move marked "a very major and important step in our efforts at fighting corruption and bribery in our country", Karzai told reporters after signing a decree at his palace.
"It gives Mr Osmani and his unit further power. I wish him success," he said, referring to the head of the body, Mohammad Yasin Osmani.
The High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption will now be permitted to investigate allegations of corruption after Karzai publicly signed the document extending its authority.
Until now the office has not had the power and legal authority to carry out investigations or enforce its recommendations, rather than just refer cases to police and prosecutors, who were widely seen as part of the problem.
Osmani welcomed the presidential decree, saying his office would now have more power to deal with corrupt officials.
"We used not to have a number of powers. Now after the president signed this decree, we have been granted some legal authority, meaning that our staff are authorised to act, in some cases, as prosecutor," he said.
Corruption has been identified as one of the major problems plaguing Afghanistan as it tackles a Taliban-led insurgency that has spread across the country and intensified in recent years.
The United States and NATO allies are boosting foreign troop figures to 150,000 in the coming months to take the fight into the Taliban's southern heartland and eradicate the insurgent threat in favour of civilian rule.
Key to winning the trust of ordinary people will be proof that government officials are clean and judicial infrastructure accountable, which has not always been the case.
Mohammad Ishaq Alko, Afghanistan's chief prosecutor, also speaking Thursday, said that up to 17 ministers including some cabinet members are currently being investigated for corruption allegations, though he refused to give their names.
The High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption, set up in 2008, has been hampered in its work by inadequate laws.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a US government watchdog, said in a December report that the office was also hamstrung by a lack of trained staff, enforcement powers and independence.
Members of Karzai's own family are regularly accused of involvement in the country's multi-billion-dollar drugs trade.
After a fraud-tainted election in August that saw organisers declare Karzai the winner when his challenger abandoned a run-off, international and domestic pressure mounted for a serious effort to combat graft.
Karzai pledged after the poll to eradicate corruption "by any means possible".
The High Office is funded by the government but also receives contributions from the United Nations and US Agency for International Development.
The office has been plagued by a shortage of staff, making do with fewer than 100 despite technically being allowed 500 employees.
Officials have said this was partly due to lack of funds but also because of the time needed to find people who are both untainted and qualified.
The office has nevertheless had some impact, for example beginning to register the assets of public officials and simplifying vehicle registration -- which used to take one month, 51 signatures and 400 dollars in bribes.
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