Corruption Hampers Development in Afghan Districts

Officials in three Afghan provinces have been taken to task over poorly-run development projects in which money is pocketed and little achieved.

Difficult questions were asked at debates held in Nangarhar, Bamian and Khost provinces as part of IWPR’s  Afghan Reconciliation initiative, which aims to support peace efforts and involve ordinary people in holding government to account.

In one debate held in the eastern Nangarhar province, Rahmanullah Delagha, head of the local council in the Kama district, said that a number of expensive public welfare projects there had done more harm than good in recent years. Speaking at an event organised by IWPR in Kama on September 30, he said that local residents’ needs had been ignored by both government and donors, who had commissioned a series of haphazard projects.

None of these had been effective because the funds were siphoned off by local officials and elders, Delagha continued, adding, “There hasn’t been a single project in Kama thus far where there has been no corruption.”

As an example, Delagha cited a well-digging project in the district where the money immediately went missing. Those wells that were constructed were shoddy and not deep enough. Other schemes involved poultry farms and hydroelectric dam projects on which millions of dollars were supposed to be spent.

“A number of elders from Kama district, including myself, complained periodically to local officials, provincial administrators and even [national] ministries,” he said. “They not only ignored our voices but quickly inaugurated projects that we opposed.”                      

Hajji Zalmai, the local government chief in Kama, acknowledged that corruption had been a problem in the past but insisted that he had been tackling it since he took office.

“Four tribal elders from Kama and two engineers from the implementation company of the deep wells project have been referred to the attorney’s office,” he said.

Zalmai said the National Solidarity Project (NSP), conceived as a way of rehabilitating rural areas with the participation of local residents, was operating in the district.

“NSP and German Agro Action construction projects are currently in progress – transparently – in Kama district. They were suggested by the community council. The money is given to the council and it spends it,” he said.

Residents of Bamian province in central Afghanistan also accused officials of inefficiency and corruption.

In an IWPR-organised debate held in the Yakawlang district on September 29, provincial council member Haidar Ali Ahmadi told the 100 participants that local government officials were not held to account.

“When the district governors present their work reports at the provincial governor’s office, they talk about implementing million-dollar projects, but when you go to the area, you are left puzzled about where these millions of dollars have been spent,” he said. “Officials shold report fully to the public on complete and incomplete projects. They must explain the reasons for the failure or success of these projects.”

Ahmadi said corruption and mismanagement had led to some initiatives remaining in limbo for years.

“We have projects in Bamian that have remained incomplete for the past 12 years, such as the Sachak school, the Sarboluk canal, the Begom Saighan school and other similar developments,” he said.

In response to these allegations, Yakawlang district chief Abdul Ahmad Mobarez said public consultations had been held last year and the year before at which “we answered [people’s] questions and told them about our activities”.

One debate participant, Akbar, asked Mobarez how many projects he had actually stopped because the work was of too poor quality.

“There was an electricity project in Dara-ye Ali,” replied Mobarez, “and there was a road project in Sar-e Gol where work was stopped and the offenders were referred to the attorney’s office.”

At a third debate, held in the southeastern Khost province, officials insisted that all was well.

Mohammad Yunus Zadran, local government head for Mandozai district, said his area had been designated a “peace district”, where good security conditions qualified it for extra development funds.

He said that 41 schemes worth over four million dollars had been sponsored by the NSP, plus another set of donor-funded activities worth over 600,000 dollars.

Two audience members asked why a number of planned infrastructure projects had not gone ahead since the “peace district” was awarded some years ago. Local officials replied that they were working with the provincial governor’s office and international development agencies to resolve the problems.

Faridullah Nasrat, the head of public health in Mandozai district, acknowledged that medical facilities there were under-resourced. The district was served by only three clinics, with insufficient numbers of doctors and resources.

“Although we do not have resources in these clinics, we provide help for patients with malaria, tuberculosis and seasonal diseases as well as aiding women in labour,” he said.

This report is based on an ongoing series of debates conducted as part of IWPR’s programme Afghan Reconciliation: Promoting Peace and Building Trust by Engaging Civil Society.