Report: Corruption robs Afghans of 25% of GDP

Los Angeles Times

KABUL — Endemic corruption in Afghanistan amounts to a virtual tax on poverty-stricken Afghans, robbing them of the equivalent of a quarter of the war-wracked nation’s annual gross domestic product, a new U.N. report states.

The report, released Tuesday by the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime, found that nearly 60 percent of Afghans regarded corruption as their biggest worry, outpacing concerns about the insurgency or joblessness.

As President Hamid Karzai’s government prepares for a crucial international aid conference in London on Jan. 28, it likely will face tough questions about measures under way to battle corruption, a problem that the Afghan leader’s administration has struggled with for years.

Corruption at every level of Afghan society has undermined the population’s confidence in Karzai and his government — confidence that Washington says is sorely needed before the Taliban can be defeated.

One of the most striking elements of the report discussed the average amount of a bribe: $160. One out of every two Afghans reported paying at least one kickback to a public official within a year.

“Bribery is a crippling tax on people who are already among the world’s poorest,” Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Office on Drugs and Crime, said in a statement released by the world body. “The Afghans say it is impossible to obtain a public service without paying a bribe.”

The total amount of bribes Afghans paid in the past year, $2.5 billion, roughly paralleled the money generated by the country’s opium trade, which the Office on Drugs and Crime estimated at $2.8 billion.

Afghans said they were asked to pay a bribe in 40 percent of their encounters with senior politicians. The likeliest reasons for bribes were to cut through red tape or avoid poor service, the report states.

Despite the extent of corruption in Afghan society, only 9 percent of Afghans in urban centers said they have reported an act of corruption to authorities, according to the report.

Costa, who released the report in London, urged “the new Afghan government to make fighting corruption its highest priority.” In his statement he called for public officials to disclose their incomes and assets and for the removal of governors and local government officials “with proven records of collusion with shady characters.”

In Kabul, meanwhile, NATO reported that two U.S. troops were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, bringing the number of Americans killed in Afghanistan this year to 18.