Foreigners are fuelling the problem of corruption in Afghanistan, a country already ranked as one of the most corrupt in the world, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Sunday.
At a major international conference in Germany on the future of Afghanistan last week, Karzai pledged to step up the fight against corruption in return for sustained international support.
But speaking in the capital on Sunday, Karzai said foreigners were adding to the problem by, for example, awarding contracts to high ranking government officials.
“We have problems with both Afghans and foreigners… Our foreigner colleagues have not only been uncooperative but sometimes they have created obstacles,” he told an anti-corruption conference.
“One urgent way to avoid corruption in Afghanistan is for our foreign friends and co-workers to stop giving contracts to government officials and their family members,” Karzai told the conference.
“Giving contracts to the Afghan government and their family members and government officials is corruption, cause for corruption, and encouraging corruption.”
via Karzai calls on foreign partners to tackle Afghan graft.
