CORRUPTION IN CONFLICT

large sums of money. For example, a senior official may receive a kickback in
exchange for directing a lucrative government contract to a favored company.
Grand corruption can also include the manipulation of policies, institutions, and
procedures, enabling high-level officials to benefit at the expense of the public
good; this is sometimes referred to as “political corruption.” 7
Systemic Corruption, a Dilemma for Anticorruption Efforts
Many Afghan and international observers have asserted that corruption in
Afghanistan, by at least 2009, had become systemic, or pervasive and entrenched. 8 In
2010, U.S. Embassy Kabul reported that in a meeting with senior U.S. officials, Afghan
National Security Advisor Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta said “corruption is not just a
problem for the system of governance in Afghanistan; it is the system of governance.” 9
In such an environment, government leaders and private citizens who are connected
at high political levels can seek to maintain their control over resources and levers
of power through their abuse of entrusted authority. This poses a dilemma for any
attempt to prevent or combat corruption: Tackling systemic corruption demands
cooperation from political leaders whose dominance may rely on the very power
structures anticorruption efforts seek to dismantle. These leaders thus have every
reason to block reform; their interest lies in maintaining the corrupt system that
benefits them, as well as larger identity groups with which they associate.
In situations where corruption is systemic, as in Afghanistan, it is important to
acknowledge the false dichotomy of petty versus grand corruption. That
framework, while useful for understanding different levels of corruption, can
obscure the fact that corruption is vertically integrated. Petty corruption is
directly linked to grand corruption, as powerbrokers at the top use state
institutions (for example, the police, courts, customs, and procurement systems)
to extract resources from the bottom. 10
Tackling systemic corruption demands cooperation
from political leaders whose dominance may rely on
the very power structures anticorruption efforts seek
to dismantle.
A key mechanism of this integrated structure is the purchase of public positions.
Numerous reports and interviews note that often, “government employment
is purchased rather than earned.” 11 For example, a 2007 study by the Afghan
NGO Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) described a “bazaar economy” in which
“every position, favor, and service can be bought and sold.” 12 The study cited
“the strong and interwoven spider web of illicit networks, which are closely
collaborating from district to provincial and central level,” and these networks’
abilities to effectively block reform. 13 According to a former mid-level Afghan
government official, ministers and deputy ministers sought to control access not
to all positions, but to the most lucrative subordinate positions, such as certain
posts in major cities, border security posts, and senior positions in provinces and
districts that grow poppies or have mines. 14 This upward flow of money and power
victimizes ordinary people, while enriching a few.
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SIGAR I CORRUPTION IN CONFLICT I SEPTEMBER 2016