Trainees at the Afghan National Police Academy, like these pictured, now receive anti-corruption training as part of the basic curriculum. This is just one example of the efforts designed to reduce corruption within the Afghan National Security Forces.
KABUL, Afghanistan (June 3, 2010) — Theft, embezzlement, kickbacks and bribes – unfortunately, these are all too common in Afghanistan. Corruption is one of the biggest challenges faced in building the foundation for a secure future here.
“Every society has some level of corruption,” said U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Steve Andersen, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan chief of anti-corruption. “In Afghanistan there is plenty of corruption – it’s been determined through surveys, cases and trials. There are not too many cases where our senior leaders talk about Afghanistan without mentioning some form of corruption.”
Corruption is a big term, said Andersen. To him, it really boils down to crime. Embezzlement, making false claims, bribes at checkpoints – no matter how you look at it, these are crimes. Andersen believes a lot of the crime and corruption is due to the lack of transparency and organizational fortitude. NTM-A is taking a proactive approach to fighting this.
“The NTM-A approach focuses on building capacity and accountable systems to deter and prevent people from doing corrupt things,” said Andersen. “It’s important to follow individual allegations of corruption, and we are trying to get the security forces to follow those, but when we spend all our time following those cases you miss out on putting systems in place to prevent those cases in the first place.”
Recently, NTM-A has helped the Afghan National Security Forces implement a number of initiatives to help fight the corruption. The electronic funds program is one such initiative that allows policemen to get paid electronically via their cell phone. This prevents those higher up from skimming off of their employees’ salaries. The ANSF has also started to use blue fuel to aid in identifying those people who were siphoning gas and selling it or using it for unofficial purposes. Much of the progress and focus, however, is with training.
“Training is a big part of the mission. We have a staff of lawyers who mentor the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior and anti-corruption measures are within their charge,” said Andersen. The training is extended to those at the lower levels with ANP trainees receiving basic anti-corruption training and ANA paralegal and legal officers receiving training.
Other organizations have helped the ANSF implement additional anti-corruption programs. The Afghanistan Justice Sector Support Program has helped establish a national case management system that provides visibility, from cradle to grave, on criminal cases. They have developed a major crimes task force comprised of vetted criminal investigators who examine major cases. There is also an anti-corruption tribunal that handled its first prosecution in April in which a border patrol brigadier general, colonel and major were sentenced to eight years in prison and fined on corruption charges.
Ministries within the Afghan government are taking their own initiative in fighting corruption. The MoD has established a lottery system for the National Military Academy of Afghanistan to eliminate people from being accepted based on who they knew or what they paid. The MoI has increased pay for policemen in an effort to reduce the occurrence of bribes and implemented the 119 call center where citizens can report corruption cases. The MoI has also instituted a personnel asset inventory that tracks all personnel with biometrics to prevent officials from claiming salaries for ghost employees. Additionally, the MoI is developing six mobile anti-corruption teams who are sent into the field to investigate inspector general-level complaints.
Andersen has only been in country a few weeks, but since he arrived, every chance he gets, he asks Afghan officials and locals what they think of the corruption situation – is it getting better or worse?
“Some surveys indicate the population is feeling better about it,” said Andersen. “But all these things are in infancy. It’s going to take some time to mature.”
Andersen knows he won’t be able to solve all the corruption problems in the next year, but his goal is to continue to take those small steps forward.
“These small positive steps are done all the time,” he said. “I want to keep that momentum going and continue to make progress, even if it small steps. Ultimately, we strive to get to the point where the Afghans believe they have a government that is accountable to the people. All these programs and systems we’re putting in place will help get us to that point.
“There is no lack of consensus on the fact that corruption needs to be addressed,” added Andersen. “From what I can tell, it’s one of the highest priorities of the coalition and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.”
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