Corruption widespread in Afghanistan, UNODC survey says

Source: unodc

19 January 2010 - 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. A new UNODC survey reveals that an overwhelming 59 per cent of Afghans view public dishonesty as a bigger concern than insecurity (54 per cent) and unemployment (52 per cent).

Corruption in Afghanistan: Bribery as Reported by Victims is based on interviews with 7,600 people in 12 provincial capitals and more than 1,600 villages around Afghanistan. It records the real experiences (rather than just perceptions) of urban as well as rural residents, men and women, between autumn 2008 and autumn 2009.
...

In 2009, Afghan citizens had to pay approximately US$ 2,490 million in bribes, which is equivalent to 23 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), according to the report. By coincidence, this is similar to the revenue accrued by the opium trade in 2009 (which UNODC estimates at US$ 2.8 billion). "Drugs and bribes are the two largest income generators in Afghanistan: together they correspond to about half the country's (licit) GDP," said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa as he released the report today in London.

The report shows that graft is part of everyday life in Afghanistan. During the survey period, one Afghan out of two had to pay at least one kickback to a public official. In more than half the cases (56 per cent), the request for illicit payment was an explicit demand by the service provider. In three quarters of the cases, baksheesh (bribes) were paid in cash. The average bribe is US$ 160, in a country where GDP per capita is a mere US$ 425 per year.

Read more: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2010/January/corruption-widespread-in-afghanistan-unodc-survey-says.html

---

'One of the respondents in the survey explains: "My cousin runs a medical practice. Some expired and low-quality drugs were found in his clinic and the health department started a procedure to take him to court. Later, he bribed the head doctor and his file was clean within a day. My cousin is still selling the expired and poor-quality drugs made in Pakistan, under the label of Germany and US."'


same source.

Given the means of selecting which contractors recieved the "No-Bid Contracts" what did you expect

... why the US keeps backing these corrupt "gangster" losers.

Like attracts like. Sooner or later the population will hang Karzai & all the US intervention in the world won't prevent that. We'll just come off looking like mercenaries and corporatist thugs. Again.

Smedley Butler would be disgusted.

Corruption robs Afghans of a quarter of nation's GDP, report says

The U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime says nearly 60% of Afghans regard corruption as their biggest worry, outpacing concerns about the insurgency or joblessness.

By Alex Rodriguez

12:28 PM PST, January 19, 2010

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan


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 today by the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime, found that nearly 60% 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 underway 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.

<more>

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-afghan-corruption20-2010jan20,0,7909224.story