China: Corrupt transport official goes on trial

Corrupt transport official goes on trial in SW China
www.chinaview.cn 2007-06-06 13:21:26

KUNMING, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Hu Xing, former deputy director of Yunnan Provincial Transport Bureau, went on trial on Friday for charges including bribe-taking.
The trial was held at the Intermediate People's Court of Kunming, capital city of Yunnan.
Hu Xing, who fled to Singapore to escape police, allegedly abused his position to take more than 40 million yuan (5.2 million U.S. dollars) in bribes. He was also accused of taking advantage of his post to help his relatives profit from business activities, keeping a mistress, having "unlawful sexual relationships" with other women.
Hu disappeared in January while local authorities were investigating a major economic crime, in which he was suspected of involvement.
Hu, born in Oct. 1958, had served as deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Transport Department since Nov. 2004, and previously served as vice mayor of Kunming.
His responsibilities in the provincial government mainly concerned roads and transportation, and he was in charge of city planning and construction during his tenure as vice mayor of Kunming.
Hu was captured in Singapore on Feb. 18.
Editor: Bi Mingxin

Bangladesh: Billions evaded by Voip racket

Billions evaded by Voip racket
M Nuruzzaman

Telecommunication Regulatory Commission [BTRC] fined private land phone operator RanksTel TK 140 million for carrying out VoIP business illegally while it is yet to determine the amount of fine to be recovered from Western Network, which is owned by Helal Khan, a notorious leader of BNP’s cultural wing, who is considered to be the ring leader of illegal Voip network in Bangladesh. It may be mentioned here that, Rapid Action Battalion [RAB] recovered huge quantity of Voip equipment, calling cards etc from one of the outlets of Helal Khan in Dhaka on December 26 last year. Subsequently a criminal case was lodged with the Ramna Police Station on the same day. According to telecommunication experts, Khan evaded more than a few hundred million Takas by operating several illegal Voip call centers in Dhaka and other parts of the country.
Helal Khan, taking the advantage of BNP being in power, initiated Voip business in Bangladesh with the direct patronization of Harris Chowdhury, former political secretary to the Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in 2001. It is also alleged that, Harris was in fact one of the partners in Helal Khan’s illegal Voip business. It is also learnt that another front ranking leader of the cultural front of BNP, Babul Ahmed is another business partner of Helal in this illegal business. Babul Ahmed went into hiding as his name came in a number of serious corruptions, including making huge amount of money by monopolizing the supply of programs to state owned Bangladesh Television. Babul Ahmed’s name also came for trafficking people to various western countries in the name of cultural delegation.
Earlier the Bangladesh telecommunication Regulatory Commission [BTRC] fined two more cell phone companies in the country for operating illegal Voip exchanges. Talking to Weekly Blitz, one of the senior officials of BTRC said, it is now actively working to determine the amount of fine to be collected from Helal Khan’s Western Network.
“Helal Khan’s company has evaded more than 3 billion Taka during 2001-2006 periods. So, even if we decide to take a part of the entire amount, it should be something around a few hundred million Taka”, the official said.
The BTRC official said, it is already clear to them that Helal Khan is the ring leader of the Voip racket in the country. Now it is time for the government to determine a very serious action against this man.
A RanksTel senior official said that the land phone operator having licenses for four zones out of five across the country have already deposited the penalty money in order to clear it of charges.
Earlier, the Rapid Action Battalion raided the head office of RanksTel at Bijoy Sarani and confiscated its VoIP equipment. The battalion also filed a case against the company under Bangladesh Telecommunications Act 2001.
Voice over Internet Protocol business has been illegal in Bangladesh till now despite the cabinet of Khaleda Zia approved the legalization of the internet telephony in November 2003.
The interim government on July 14 approved the International Long Distance Telecommunications Services Policy 2007 which recommended that locally owned telecoms firms should be given preference for licenses to provide overseas calls through VoIP.
During the tenure of the past government, the number of illegal VoIP operators mushroomed and they earned more than TK 30 billion in five years, according to an unofficial estimate. The state-owned BTTB, which is solely responsible for overseas calls, incurred loss of about TK 6 billion a year in revenue.
According to the telecoms policy 1998, the telephone board is the sole provider of international calls to and from Bangladesh and other operators must carry their overseas calls through the international gateway of the telephone board.
The Rapid Action Battalion continued to raid on illegal VoIP centers. The elite force in its latest raid on Saturday seized VoIP equipment from landline operator Bay Phones in Chittagong.
RAB launched the drive in December last year and busted a dozen centers so far.
Posted on 26 Jul 2007 by Root

South Africa: Corrupt provider dodges accountability

Mr Webster Ndodana , President of the South African Association of Consulting Engineers (left), in conversation with newly inducted Fellow Pepi Silinga (centre) and SAAE Executive Committee Member Trueman Goba (right).


Corrupt provider dodges accountability
Published in: Legalbrief Environmental
Date: Tue 24 July 2007
Category: Litigation
Issue No: 0020

A report in The Herald notes that two years after engaging a consultant to provide an audit of storm-damaged houses in Nelson Mandela Bay, the housing and land committee is still struggling to get the information from the service provider, who has already been paid.
Ndodana Consulting Engineers was awarded a tender in 2005 to conduct a technical investigation of structural defects and disaster-related damage to RDP houses in Nelson Mandela Bay, and to present a comprehensive report, with the numbers of the erven, the extent of the damage and other related issues to the housing and land committee so that it could arrange the funding for repairs. Two months ago, the consultant presented the committee with an incomplete report. The consultant did not stick to the briefing given by the committee and was asked to do the work again. This was after they had been already paid about R700 000.


Provider pockets council money but fails to deliver
By Max Matavire Metro Editor
TWO years after engaging a consultant to provide an audit of storm-damaged houses in Nelson Mandela Bay, the housing and land committee is still battling to get the information from the service provider, who has already been paid.
Ndodana Consulting Engineers was awarded a tender in 2005 to conduct a technical investigation of structural defects and disaster- related damage to RDP houses in Nelson Mandela Bay, and to present a comprehensive report, with the numbers of the erven, the extent of the damage and other related issues to the housing and land committee so that it could arrange the funding for repairs.
Two months ago, the consultant presented the committee with a report which was incomplete. The consultant did not stick to the briefing given by the committee and was asked to do the work again. This was after they had been already paid about R700 000.
Part of the briefing was for Ndodana Consulting Engineers to give proposals for identified houses by providing a specification in each case, to include in its report the corrective actions required where degradation had occurred as a result of topographical, geo-technical and infrastructure service conditions, to provide a cost estimate for such remedial repairs to both the houses and the infrastructure, and prepare a budget report.
A second consultant, Stemele Bosch Africa, was appointed in March this year as project manager for the rectification of the storm- damaged houses. However, it cannot proceed with its work as Ndodana has not provided all the required information.
The housing committee lashed out at Ndodana yesterday for not taking the ward councillors on board so they could help it identify the houses.
Committee chairman Melvin Manentsa said it was now three years that the committee had been battling with the matter.
The houses were damaged during the storms which swept across the Eastern Cape coast in 2002 and 2005. The committee was also angry that about R10-million given to the municipality by disaster management to repair the close to 600 identified houses damaged had still not been used.
“Some of the owners have already moved out of these houses because of the appalling conditions. We are talking about service delivery, but we are not doing it. Somebody somewhere is really not serious about what we are doing,” said Manentsa.
Councillor Elizabeth Trent said Ndodana must table the required report at the committee‘s next meeting, which is only next month.
matavirem@johncom.co.za

Philippines: judiciary world's 8th most corrupt, says report

RP 8th most corrupt, says report

AN INTERNATIONAL group has ranked the Philippines as the eighth most corrupt country in the world—down from ninth last year—in a study that covered 163 countries.
In its Global Corruption Report 2007, Transparency International also ranked Haiti as the world’s most corrupt country while Finland, Iceland and New Zealand tied in first place as the world’s least corrupt.
The group ranked Singapore as the third least corrupt county next to Denmark. Iceland was the least corrupt last year followed by Finland and New Zealand.
The Global Corruption Report 2007 focused on corruption in judicial systems.
Transparency says a corrupt judiciary erodes the international community’s ability to prosecute transnational crime and inhibits access to justice and redress for human rights violations. Corruption also undermines economic growth by damaging the trust of the investment community and impedes efforts to reduce poverty.
“Corrupt courts deny victims and the accused the basic human right to a fair and impartial trial, sometimes even to a trial at all,” group chairman Huguette Labelle said.
“It is tempting to simply point an accusing finger at judges. The influence of a corrupt judge can be huge… But judicial corruption can extend to all players in the game. Court officials may seek bribes for services that should be free; lawyers may charge additional ‘fees’ to expedite or delay cases, direct clients to judges known to take bribes, collude with judges to lose a case, or even act as intermediaries for bribe-paying. Clerks may purposely lose certain files. Prosecutors may drop certain cases for a price.”
The report categorizes judicial corruption into two: political interference in the judicial process by the Legislative or Executive branch, and bribery.
The group’s latest global survey of attitudes toward corruption reveals that at least one in 10 households had to pay a bribe to get access to justice in more than 25 countries. In a further 20 countries, more than three in 10 households reported that bribery was involved in securing access to justice or a “fair” outcome in court.
Transparency says petty bribery and political influence in the judiciary erodes social cohesion in a society where there is one system for the rich and another for the poor.
“If money and influence are the basis of justice, the poor cannot compete,” said Akere Muna, the group’s vice chairman and president of the Pan African Lawyers’ Union.
“Bribery not only makes justice unaffordable; it ruins the capacity of the justice system to fight against corruption and to serve as a beacon of independence and accountability,” Muna said. Eileen A. Mencias



Editorials: Corruption as ‘two-way traffic’

DISTRICT Customs Collector Ricardo Belmonte complaining about the Bureau of Customs being considered the most corrupt government agency by respondents in a Social Weather Station (SWS) survey is expected.
This is because, in the final analysis, surveys like this are mostly perception, the contrary view of SWS’ Mahar Mangahas notwithstanding.
That survey reflected partly the experiences of businessmen-respondents and partly their perception; it was not a product of actual probe into government corruption.
To be fair to Belmonte, it is possible the customs bureau is not the most corrupt, although it would also be wrong to claim that particular government agency is clean.
Many-sided
But while the SWS survey on corruption in government is partly perception, it veered away from the usual one-sidedness of other similar undertakings, those that put too much stress on the bureaucracy and less on the other contributory factors.
Common sense tells us that corrupt government employees are able to do their thing because there are clients who oblige them or are forced to play along.
Or simply put corruption is a many-sided act.
Dishonesty
Smuggling, for example, does not start with the corrupt customs officials but with the smugglers, who are businessmen.
And the net is wide: the act could not be consummated and kept secret without law enforcers getting paid to look the other way, other businessmen knowing about it but keeping silent, and even media people hiding it from public view for a fee.
Survey or no survey, the public knows that only few businessmen follow basic honest practices, whether in issuing receipts which was one of the SWS survey’s findings, but more so in greasing the palms of corrupt government officials.
And this dishonesty extends even to the less powerful sectors of society.
Mechanism
Acting Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Virginia Palanca-Santiago is therefore correct in pointing out that fighting corruption is a “two-way traffic” that involves not just the government but also the public.
The problem is that no effective mechanism has been instituted to attend to the usually hidden aspect of the corruption process: the corrupt elements in the private sector.

Australia: Corrupt Policeman, Nigerian Scam Links

Concerns on corrupt officer ignored
Geesche Jacobsen | July 2, 2007

A COLLEAGUE raised concerns about the fraud detective Con Kostakidis more than two years before he was charged by the Police Integrity Commission, but police dismissed his allegations.
Kostakidis, who was sentenced six weeks ago for fraud over a colleague's mortgage application, has since been allowed to resign.
But the commission is investigating further allegations against him, including those raised by a former colleague from the state crime command's asset confiscation unit nearly three years ago.
In 2004 the former colleague, who does not want to be named, wrote a report about perceived problems with Kostakidis's investigation of a Nigerian email scam.
Soon afterwards the officer alleged he was being harassed in the unit.
He has since left the police after a dispute about his contract. When applying for jobs he has been told his previous managers have accused him of disloyalty. He fears he is being victimised.
The whistleblower's claims included concerns about the seizure of assets in the investigation of the Nigerian scam, in which victims contacted by email paid a man, Nick Marinellis, processing or banking fees.
Kostakidis headed the investigation. After charging Marinellis, the asset confiscation unit said it had seized $1.5 million of his assets. But the whistleblower predicted many of these assets, including a house covered by a mortgage, could not be seized and would yield no money for police because they had not been bought with money from his victims. He said Kostakidis had failed to seize other assets bought with victims' funds.
The whistleblower said some of the dealings between Marinellis and a man called Viron Hondros should be investigated. The Herald previously revealed that, within days of Marinellis being sentenced, Kostakidis started business dealings with Mr Hondros and two of his daughters. Mr Hondros, a self-styled mortgage broker, is now bankrupt. Neither he nor his daughters have been charged.
Kostakidis ran an Oxford Street cafe believed to have previously been seized by the police. It is at this cafe that he claimed to have employed the wife of a colleague, who is yet to face court, to help their application for a mortgage.
The Police Integrity Commission is believed to be still investigating the handling of the Nigerian scam and other matters raised by the whistleblower. It is also overseeing an internal police investigation into the handling of his original complaints.
Five months after the original complaint to the professional standards unit, it dismissed concerns about the asset confiscation unit's management. But other concerns, including those about Kostakidis, were not addressed.
Nearly a year after the initial complaint - about seven months after Kostakidis established dealings with Mr Hondros - the concerns about the Nigerian investigation were referred to the fraud squad boss, Superintendent Col Dyson, who found no basis for them.
Five weeks later, in August 2005, Mr Dyson awarded the head of the asset confiscation unit the "outstanding performer award" for the seizure assets from the Nigerian investigation.
A spokeswoman for the state crime command could not tell the Herald how much money was recovered from the Nigerian scam. She said the whistleblower's original complaint did not contain allegations about that investigation. Because a new complaint was being investigated, police would comment no further.
A spokesman for the Police Commissioner, Ken Moroney, said there were no benefits that Kostakidis would receive through resignation that he might have been denied through being dismissed.

Ireland: Corrupt civil servants ordered to do community service

Corrupt civil servants ordered to do community service

By Sonya McLean
Saturday July 07 2007

Liam Rainsford (43) of Cremore Heights, Glasnevin; Michael Byrne (51) of Parkwood Road, Old Bawn; and Alan Quinn (48) of Broadmeadows, Swords, all accepted payment from Dooley's Law Agents Limited, for speeding up the process by which the company received documents from the Land Registry.
Gerard Dooley (50), of Cranagh Park, Rathfarnham, of Dooley's Law Agents Ltd, admitted he corruptly gave cheques to Rainsford, Quinn and Byrne on dates between December 19, 2000 and September 1, 2003.
Rainsford pleaded guilty to corruptly receiving four cheques, drawn on Dooley's account, as a reward for the supply of copy folios and/or file plans in relation to the affairs or business of the Land Registry on dates between November 16, 2001 and May 30, 2003.
Byrne pleaded guilty to the same charge and to an additional charge of "making a false instrument" in relation to a land registry document between September 9, 2002 and June 30, 2003.
Quinn admitted also to corruptly accepting four cheques drawn on Dooley's account as a reward for fixing certificates to maps in relation to the affairs or business of the Land Registry.
Last February, Byrne received a six-month suspended sentence, Rainsford, Quinn and Dooley all got one-year suspended sentences and were fined €20,000, €10,000 and €20,000 respectively.
Judge Delahunt had adjourned the case to allow for preparation of probation reports to determine if the men were eligible for community service.
She ordered that Bryne carry out 80 hours' community service, and Rainsford, Quinn and Dooley all do 100 hours, which had to be served within 12 months or they would they be jailed for a year.
Judge Delahunt heard that the Land Registry lost €15,000 after Rainsford was personally paid €15.50 rather than the €25 registry fee each time he provided Dooley's with copies of folios and file plans. Rainsford got a total of €12,508, almost €100 per week, over 30 months for this service.
Byrne, a senior clerical officer, was paid a total of €300 after he photocopied legitimate copies of documents and signed another staff member's name to the document.
Quinn, an examiner in charge of the mapping section, received €2,400 after he also organised for the attachment of certificates to maps at a quicker rate.

- Sonya McLean

Afghanistan: police chiefs sacked

On January 2, 2004, a clash took place between government army and robbers in western province of Farah in Afghanistan. 2 robbers were killed, one wounded and 2 others were arrested. The next day on January 3, 2004, government officials of Farah decided to hang the dead bodies in two different locations in the city of Farah. The dead bodies were hanged in a crowded square of city for over 8 hours and thousands of people including children watched the horrible scenes which reminded the era of terror under Taliban.


Afghan police chiefs sacked

July 28 2007 at 05:09PM
By Jon Hemming

Kabul - The Afghan government sacked two provincial police chiefs for negligence, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday, highlighting problems in a force often accused of corruption and which is key to security in Afghanistan.
Poorly paid, poorly trained and ill-equipped, the police are the frontline in the fight against Taliban insurgents. Often stationed in remote outposts, they suffer far higher casualties than the more mobile and better equipped Afghan army.
The Interior Ministry said it had sacked the provincial police chiefs of Dai Kundi in the centre of the country and Wardak just southwest of the capital, Kabul.
"These two people weren't able to provide proper services to the people and couldn't attract the support of the people, they weren't able to establish security and stability properly," ministry spokesperson Zemarai Bashary told a news conference.
The police chief in Wardak stands accused of pocketing officers' salaries, leading many in his force to abandon their posts.
"We are investigating him," said Bashary. Police officers earn only $70 (about R500) a month.
It was in Wardak that Taliban rebels kidnapped two German engineers and five Afghans last week. The body of one of the Germans was later found on the side of a road.
Wardak, only an hour's drive from Kabul, is among provinces previously regarded as safe which have witnessed a rise in Taliban violence in the last few months.
Only a few hundred Turkish troops from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are stationed there and they are not allowed by their government to conduct offensive operations. Security in the province therefore largely falls to the police.
It was a breakdown in law and order that allowed the Taliban to get a foothold in Wardak and this picture is being repeated across Afghanistan, analysts say.
"The big problem is not the lack of ISAF forces, it is the chaos surrounding the Afghan government national police assets there," said a senior Western diplomat who declined to named.
The problems also affect the Interior Ministry which appoints officers and controls the force.
The ministry "is notoriously corrupt, factionalised and an increasingly important actor in Afghanistan's illegal drug economy," said a report this month by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, an independent think-tank.
A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Bank last year accused elements in the Interior Ministry of an "increasing role" in organising "protection for criminal markets" and the facilitation of illicit activities.
From 2002 until this year, Germany led the training of Afghan police and contributed some $80-million to a total of around $200-million spent on the force in that time.
The European Union has now taken over Germany's role and the United States is ploughing more money in - $2,5-billion for 2007 alone. But deep-rooted remedies may be needed.
"Without comprehensive reform of the Ministry of Interior, police reform efforts will fail and the money spent on reform will be wasted," the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit said.




A US military Humvee speeds away under a hail of stones thrown by protestors in Kabul, Afghanistan. RAWA: Afghan police is accused of having links with those who misused people's demonstration in Kabul on May 29, 2006 to turn it to violence.

Institute for War & Peace Reporting, June 6, 2006

Afghan police part of the problem
Corruption in the law-enforcement service has become so endemic that a provincial governor has decided to speak out.

By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif for IWPR

Corruption is a growth industry for Afghanistan's police. They stand accused of extorting money from drug smugglers, gun runners, brothel owners and gamblers, in return for looking the other way. Those who refuse to pay can be arrested as part of an apparently virtuous clean-up campaign, and then released once they hand over the cash.
The bribery and corruption surrounding the police force are just a fact of life for most Afghans. But it still came as something of a shock when the governor of the northern Balkh province took the region's law officers to task.
"Corruption increases day by day," thundered governor Atta Mohammad Noor, addressing police chiefs and rank-and-file officers in the provincial capital Mazar-e-Sharif last month. "You are partners with gamblers, bandits, brothels, alcohol dealers and even pickpockets.
"The criminals who are your partners are able to operate freely. The only ones who get arrested are those who are not your associates - and even they get released after paying bribes."
The governor said high-level corruption in the police force meant that the Balkh authorities were unable to provide security for residents.
He acknowledged that much of the new Afghan National Police is made up of former mujahedin, the forces who fought and ultimately triumphed over the Soviet invaders.
Atta, a former leading militia commander himself, said it was partly out of respect for their past record that he had been reluctant to remove them. "But if things keep going this way, I will not support anyone any more," he warned.
Human Rights Watch, the United States-based watchdog, issued a statement in early May calling on President Hamed Karzai to stop appointing known human rights abusers as law-enforcement officers.
"At least four of the current candidates for provincial police chief were barred from standing as candidates in last year's parliamentary elections for having links to illegal militias," said the Human Rights Watch report. "Other potential appointees are known human rights abusers, warlords, and drug-traffickers. Several of the candidates have been implicated in murder, torture, intimidation, bribery, government corruption, and interfering with police investigations."
The Afghan president is currently in the process of shifting district-level police chiefs, in some cases bringing in new blood and in others simply shifting people around, in a practice that has become characteristic of his appointments policy.
In response to the governor's criticism, Balkh police chief Khan Mohammad Mojahed promised to spare no effort to clean up his administration and ensure better security in the province.
His spokesman, Shir Jaan Durani, defended the police, telling IWPR, "Just because a few policemen may be involved with criminals does not mean they are all corrupt."
"At least four of the current candidates for provincial police chief were barred from standing as candidates in last year’s parliamentary elections for having links to illegal militias."
"... Kabul’s police chief, Jamil Jumbish, has been implicated in murder, torture, intimidation, bribery and interfering with investigations into misconduct by officers directly under his control."
HRW, May 4, 2006
But many Afghans would say the ratio of corrupt to honest police does not bode well for the country's security. Nor is the problem limited to Balkh.
"More than 90 per cent of the police are corrupt," said a Kabul businessman, interviewed while visiting Mazar-e-Sharif on a buying trip. "Last year my shop in Kabul was robbed. After the robbery I found the identity card of one of the local police in my shop. When I brought it to the police station, the commander took it off me, and warned me not to tell anyone or else my life would be at risk."
Mazar-e-Sharif resident Mohammad Rasul recalled how the police failed in their duties when armed robbers broke into his neighbor's house in late March, "The robbers came at one in the morning and we called the police. They didn't come for an hour, by which time the robbers had already killed a member of the family and fled."
The owner of the house managed to detain one of the thieves, and handed him over to the police, said Rasul. But the man was released after a few days.
"The police are protecting robbers as they steal," said Rasul.
Law enforcement officials argue that much has been done to improve the situation since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Over the past four and a half years, police academies have been established in all of Afghanistan's main provinces. International trainers from the United States, Britain, and Germany have been working with the Afghan police to improve their performance.
Police from the five northern provinces get their training at the Mazar-e-Sharif police academy, where they receive basic lessons in policing, human rights, penal law and traffic regulations.
"We cannot compare today's police with yesterday's," said Colonel Sayed Alam, head of the academy. "There has been a remarkable change in police structure."
Those who can read and write are trained for five weeks, he said, while those who are illiterate receive a nine-week course.
...new Kabul police chief, Amanullah Guzar... was appointed by Karzai. Documents circulating among diplomats allegedly link him to extortion, land grabbing and the kidnapping of three UN workers in late 2004.
The Guardian, June 13, 2006
According to an official at the interior ministry, which controls the police, the Bonn agreement, which underpinned Afghanistan's post-2001 development, stipulated that the national police force should number 62,000. As of March 2006, over 57,000 had been trained, with the rest due to graduate by September.
But Afghans brush aside the notion that trained police are any improvement over the old force.
"We have seen no difference between trained and untrained police," said Niaz Mohammad, from Sar-e-Pul province. "They are all just as bad."
"I find it funny when I hear that the national police are being trained," said the Kabul businessman. "They can train them one thousand times but they'll still be robbers."
Analysts tend to agree, saying that despite the best efforts of the international community, the police system is riddled with corruption and nepotism.
"The police are local militia commanders and members who have just changed their clothes," said Mohammad Aalam Rahmani, a political analyst in Mazar-e-Sharif. "Now they will do robberies and looting wearing police uniforms."
But an interior ministry official who did not want to be named insisted that things were getting better.
"In a country like Afghanistan which has just emerged from crisis, the police may not have the same capacity as those in developed countries," he said. "But at least we do now have police, and they will get better day by day."
The official pointed to the presidential and parliamentary elections, saying that the police succeeded in ensuring security during these tense and difficult periods. "That is one of their major accomplishments," he said.
A policeman trained at the Balkh police academy accepted that corruption was common among his colleagues, but he pointed to the low salaries they get paid as the major cause. Most police make between US$50 and US$70 per month.
"The training has nothing to do with stamping out corruption," he said. "Both trained and untrained police are fond of money. Salaries are too low, so police prefer money to law enforcement. They too have to make a living."
This article originally appeared in Afghan Recovery Report, produced by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). Afghan Recovery Report is supported by the UK Foreign Office and the US State Department.