KABUL: Afghanistan CEO’s office said in line with new US strategy it is committed to meeting its responsibilities. The Office of the CEO Abdullah Abdullah on Monday announced that government has prioritized its responsibility within the framework of the new war strategy unveiled this week by US President Donald Trump.
The Afghan government will act seriously when it comes to the campaign against corruption, boosting rule of law and strengthening good governance, CEO spokesman Mujiburrahman Rahimi said on Monday.
“We are being responsible about fighting corruption, enhancing economic development and fighting terrorism,” Rahimi said.
Analysts warn that failure by the Afghan government in undertaking its responsibility within the framework of the new war strategy would have negative implications on the ties between the two allies.
“If the Afghan government implements its commitments, I think there will be some problems in our bilateral relations, because the US wants the money it spends in Afghanistan to give results,” said political analyst Tahir Hashimi.
While the government in Kabul insists on the war against endemic corruption in the country, corruption monitoring groups argue that the government has failed to take solid action against graft.
Based on the assessments, the anti-corruption campaign in Afghanistan has faced setbacks, an official from the Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) said.
“We are witnessing a dramatic surge in corruption in the lower levels, for instance corruption at a province level, corruption in the ministry of education, ministry of health and ministry of interior, our assessment shows a 40 percent increase in graft in these areas,” said IWA researcher Naser Taimori.
In July 2016, President Ashraf Ghani signed a decree establishing the Anti-corruption Criminal Justice Center (ACJC) in Kabul to tackle high-level corruption cases. The center includes specialized police, prosecution units and courts that are designed to be independent from political and other pressure in detecting, investigating and prosecuting corruption.
Although the establishment of the anti-corruption justice center raised hopes among Afghans that corrupt officials would be brought to justice and the stolen wealth of the nation would be recuperated, little has been done.
Corruption monitoring groups say that the new center does not have the capacity to fight the trend from a wider national platform.
“War against corruption remains a top program of the Afghan government,” said AGO spokesman Jamshid Rasuli.
Trump’s new war strategy for Afghanistan was widely welcomed by the Afghan political leadership.
In a message after the announcement, Ghani said that the new strategy removes all kinds of doubt and confusion regarding Afghanistan and a clear path has been mapped out for the future, but keeping in mind that Afghanistan has also a number of responsibilities to act upon within the framework of the new strategy.
On August 22 Trump outlined a revised vision for the US war in Afghanistan, pledging to end a strategy of “nation-building” and instead announced a policy aimed more squarely at addressing the terrorist threat that emanates from the region.
In the new strategy the Trump administration calls for the Afghan government to work on areas that includes good governance, war against corruption, nation-building process and strengthening democracy and democratic institutions.