About one-half of all citizens of Afghanistan pay bribes to public officials, the United Nations said in a report released Feb. 7.
“Nearly 30 per cent of them paid a bribe for a private sector service,” the High Office for Oversight and Anticorruption and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crimes said in an emailed news release accompanying the document.
"About 80 per cent of citizens with a family member recruited into the civil service in the last three years declared that the family member in question received some form of assistance or paid a bribe to be recruited," the U.N. said. "Civil servants in the four sectors covered in the integrity surveys also acknowledged that assistance with recruitment is widespread. For example, some 50 per cent of police, local government staff and school teachers indicated that they received assistance during their recruitment."
Those most likely to receive bribes, the report said, are prosecutors, teachers, judges and customs officials.
“In most cases,” the U.N. said, “bribes are paid to obtain better or faster services, while in others bribes are offered to influence deliberations and actions such as police activities and judicial decisions, thereby eroding the rule of law and trust in institutions.”
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