Interview: Afghan anti-corruption body chief looks to China for valuable lessons in fighting corruption

The director general of the High Office of Anti-Corruption, the Afghan government's counter-corruption body, has hailed China's war on corruption and is looking forward to China's sharing of valuable experience in fighting corruption in Afghanistan.

"The Chinese government has been ardently fighting corruption and takes legal action against anyone, including ranking government and party officials, without exception," General Sayed Ghulam Hussain Fakhry told Xinhua in an interview.

In addition to an ongoing insurgency, post-Taliban Afghanistan has been suffering from rampant corruption for more than a decade.

"We have been fighting to eliminate corruption from society and I am hopeful the country will secure a better position in the report for the current year," the Afghan official stated.

Meanwhile, Integrity Watch Afghanistan, a non-governmental entity that monitors the government's fight against corruption, said in a report released in December 2016, that Afghans pay about 3 billion U.S. dollars in bribes annually.

However, General Fakhry, the head of the anti-corruption body, rejected the report as groundless, saying, "paying bribes and greasing the hands of officials is a secret crime committed by two parties and thus it is difficult for others to understand."

Nonetheless, the official admitted that the rate of embezzlement and administrative corruption in Afghanistan is considerably high and tackling it will take more time than expected.

Eliminating corruption is a challenging task, the official said, adding that fighting corruption, even in countries like Malaysia and Singapore, has taken several decades to achieve.

Established a decade ago to combat corruption in war-ravaged Afghanistan, the High Office of Anti-Corruption, which is also responsible for registering the movable and immovable assets of government officials, according to its chief, has experienced ups and downs since its formation.

"With the injection of billions of U.S. dollars into Afghanistan over the past 15 years, corruption has expanded excessively in the country due to both Afghan and foreign entities," Fakhry told Xinhua.

"Unchecked corruption has negatively affected the country's economic development, political stability, security and reconstruction process," he asserted.

Describing the war on corruption as a "challenging job" Fakhry noted that the "protracted war, ongoing militancy, high rate of illiteracy, poverty and, above all, the presence and involvement of powerful figures have made it difficult for the government to fight corruption successfully."

Very few officials have been prosecuted on charges of involvement in corruption, the official said, adding that Afghans want to see the bigwigs tried in court publicly.

The official also said after a representative of the High Office for Anti-Corruption visited China recently for the first time, his report on China's war on corruption was "significant."

"In my opinion, China's cooperation with Afghanistan in all fields including sharing its experience in fighting corruption and capacity building is vital for us and we welcome any cooperation in this regard," the head of the anti-corruption body concluded. Endit