Afghanistan okays national anti-corruption strategy

KABUL (Pajhwok): The High Council on Rule of Law has approved the ‘National Anti-corruption Strategy’ during a meeting chaired by President Ashraf Ghani yesterday, a statement said on Friday.

The meeting on Thursday afternoon at the Presidential Palace also conferred on legal claims between the National Enterprise Directorate and Amarkhel Company and regulations on heavy corruption crimes.

At the start, First Vice-president Sarwar Danish briefed the meeting about the national anti-corruption strategy and said the text of the document took two weeks to be reviewed and was ready now.

He said justice and judicial organs, civil society groups and international partners had been consulted on the strategy in meetings with them and some of their views had been incorporated.

After Danish, Chief Justice Syed Yousaf Halim, Finance Minister Eklil Hakimi and acting Interior Minister Wais Barmak expressed their views about the national anti-corruption strategy.

President Ghani said it was important to have visible and measurable movement against corruption.

The president said the people of Afghanistan and international partners were demanding practical steps from Kabul against administrative corruption.

He said every department should have their anti-corruption plans and the relevant law needed review and amendment to be more effective.

The president promised increased oversight role for civil society and media in the anti-corruption campaign and asked the civil society to come up with their proposals.

Ghani said a widely attended meeting should take place after every six months with reports about the outcome of the national anti-corruption strategy.

Acting Transport Minister Mohammad Hamid Tehmasi briefed the meeting on the legal claims between the National Enterprise Directorate and the Amarkhel Company.

The chief justice, the justice minister and others provided details of the case to the meeting which decided that the Transport Ministry would follow the case through the Justice Ministry.

Regulations about heavy corruption crimes were presented to the meeting by Attorney General Farid Hamidi, who said a joint committee with the anti-corruption police had worked on the regulations.

The meeting decided that the regulations on heavy corruption crimes should be changed into a procedure and referred them to the justice and judicial organs and the Ministry of Interior for further discussion.

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