Govt employees held on graft charges

HERAT CITY (PAN): Dozens of government employees in the western zone have been arrested this year on charges of involvement in corruption, negligence and embezzlement, officials said on Monday.

Activities of the department were going well in coordination with other state organs, High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption (HOOAC) head in the west, Mohammad Tahir, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Employees of municipalities, customs, traffic police, revenues and haj departments in Farah, Ghor, Badghis, Nimroz and Herat provinces were among the detainees, he said.

Cases against the detainees had been referred to prosecutors, said the official, who neither disclosed their names nor number. But a source in the attorney office put the number of detainees at 45. He said criminal cases against 50 percent of the detainees had been sentenced from three to five years in jail.

Governor Fazlullah Wahidi called fighting administrative graft his main priority, saying 11 government workers had been held for corruption over the past month. Most of the workers of revenues department were among the detainees, he explained.

Tor Mohammad Zarifi, a Herat provincial council member, expressed his dissatisfaction with HOOAC performance. Urging authorities to name the corrupt, he complained the anti-graft body had taken no action against big criminals.

Abdul Kabir, a resident of Herat, said corruption was rampant in customs and municipality departments, extraction of mines and major contracts, but the officials concerned were reluctant to deal with the menace.

But Tahir said his office was independently carrying out its activities and put corrupt officials on trial on the basis of concrete evidence against them.

mm/mud

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