KABUL - A United Nations-backed high-level anti-corruption body said today that it found “significant vulnerabilities to corruption” in the work of three of Afghanistan's government ministries and its Civil Service Commission, while also highlighting “questionable practices” that affect peoples’ ability to receive services.

The latest assessment of the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) found corrupt practices in the Ministry of Labour (MoL)’s pension administration, the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE)’s issuance of certificates and exam administration, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR)’s administration of land for repatriates, and the Civil Service Commission (CSC)’s appointment process.

“Bribery, refusing to perform duties, forging documents, lack of conformity to the code of conduct in personal behaviour with customers, nepotism, misuse of duties and embezzlement are some of the challenges that the process is facing,” said one of the Committee members, Mohammad Yasin Osmani, referring to problems faced in land administration for repatriates, at an MEC news conference in the capital, Kabul.

The MEC member also noted that the Afghan bodies they had spotlighted had taken their recommendations and given assurances that action will be taken.

The MEC – which is made up three senior anti-corruption experts appointed on Afghan Government’s recommendation and three others on the recommendation of the United Nations, on behalf of the international community – is mandated to develop anti-corruption recommendations and benchmarks; monitor and evaluate the government and international community efforts to fight corruption; and to report to the President, Parliament, people and international community. It releases reports of its assessments and findings every six months.

According to the Transparency International’s 2013 Corruption Perception Index [http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2013/], Afghanistan continues to be ranked at the very bottom. The index, which ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be, lists Afghanistan in the 175th spot out of 177 countries, with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Somalia taking the two bottom spots.

Addressing today’s news conference in Kabul and speaking about pension administration at the Ministry of Labour, the head of MEC, Drago Kos, noted deficiencies in the legal framework for the process of retirement as well as its organizational structure. He added that actual practices and the information and document management system are to blame for the various forms of administrative corruption found in the process.

“There are so many laws dealing with retirement which contradict with each other and it is very easy for the personnel working at the General Directorate of Pension Treasury to misuse those laws,” said Mr. Kos.

He noted that the Ministry concerned “has understood the problems” and has promised to deal with them.

Speaking about corrupt practices in the CSC, another MEC member, Eva Joly, said recruitment was not carried out through free and fair competition.

“There is a lot of interference of powerful people in the recruitment (process),” said Ms. Joly, adding that the process is “long, complicated and bureaucratic.”

“In spite of very precise regulations there are 173 steps to be accomplished in order to recruit a teacher,” she added.

Another MEC member, Yama Torabi, said the anti-graft body identified a range of malpractices – weak legal frameworks; interference by high-ranking Government officials; illegitimate, complicated and meaningless bureaucracy; low employee capacity; lack of clear procedures and guidance for applications; substandard methods of teaching; weak monitoring and oversight mechanisms; and tribal, national, linguistic and religious prejudices in the course of international examinations – as key vulnerabilities to corruption in the MoHE’s issuance of certificates and the administering of examinations.

On 9 December 2013, coinciding with International Anti-Corruption Day, Afghan authorities launched a UN-backed anti-corruption project – the Afghanistan Integrity Initiative (AFII) – aimed at supporting efforts to strengthen administrative systems and improve the technical capacity of key government institutions, as well as help citizen’s organizations to more effectively fight corruption at national and sub-national levels.

Supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), AFII will be implemented in partnership with the country’s Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Audit Office, as well as non-governmental organizations and citizen organizations.

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