A key conference on corruption in Afghanistan ended Thursday with delegates suggesting the government end immunity for corrupt officials and intensify the fight against graft. The forum drew about 450 people - cabinet ministers, ambassadors, judges, lawyers and anti-corruption officials - to discuss how to fight the endemic corruption that is paralysing Afghanistan's development.
President Hamid Karzai, who called the conference, is under intense pressure from his Western backers to cure the corruption infecting his administration in return for billions of dollars in military and development assistance. Karzai, who was re-elected in August in a vote marred by massive fraud mostly in his favour, used the meeting to warn that reform would take years.
The president used his inauguration speech last month to pledge an end to corruption. He is expected to announce his cabinet within days, the first test of his commitment to his backers to usher in an era of clean government. The gathering discussed different aspects and causes of official corruption, said Mohammad Yaseen Osmani, the head of the Karzai-appointed High Office of Oversight and Anti-corruption, speaking as the three-day meeting closed.
The government must put a stop to the practice of "protecting corruption by political groups, officials and influencials", said a resolution from the conference which also included calls on the state to encourage accountability in its institutions. The resolution also urged the government to lift "illegal immunity for corrupt officials" and "punish those who lobby for them".
It said officials should be held responsible for the quality of their work and failure to provide basic services. Respecting the independence of the judiciary, publicising "significant convictions" of corrupt officials and establishing complaint centres were other suggestions to emerge. Karzai will use the recommendations in his fight against graft, a participant who asked not to be named told AFP.
The United States, Afghanistan's key backer, has warned Karzai to back his words with action or see his cabinet bypassed in favour of lower-level officials. Improving government service in order to bolster public support for the Karzai government is a pivotal part of a new US war plan which includes deploying 30,000 extra American troops to fight a resurgent Taliban insurgency.