FIROZKOH (Pajhwok): The provincial council in western Ghor province says their findings show rampant corruption in some of local departments, stressing for a comprehensive plan to tackle the menace of corruption.
More than 60 candidates run for provincial elections in Ghor, out of which only 15, including three women could secure seats.
The provincial council head says since they started work, they have evaluated the performance of 22 non-governmental organizations and major departments of health, education and rural development departments were rife with corruption.
Fazel Haq Ehsan, provincial council head, told Pajhwok Afghan News those departments having more facilities had more corruption and vice versa.
He added they had also found anomalies in public welfare projects undertaken by some non-governmental organizations and rural rehabilitation and development department.
According to Ehsan, a provincial council team in Lal-o-Sarjangal district found that the water projects, well digging, and construction of bridges and culverts had poor quality.
According to a survey jointly conducted last year by the provincial strategic planning team, provincial council, representatives from Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) and civil society activists, corruption was on rise in the province.
The survey had found that departments like education, attorney general office, police headquarters, health department, municipality, justice and agriculture departments were among first category departments mired in corruption.
Provincial council head said: “Due to insecurity and lack of budget, we cannot travel to each and every district and meet with people. These problems have also weakened the council.”
He added every member of the council had 25,000 afs monthly salary, which was not enough for them. He said despite problems, the council’s members were a major bridge between people and the authorities.
Some residents, however, were of the opinion that provincial council could not deliver services to people as they had promised during canvassing.
Mohammad Salim, a dweller of Firozkoh, alleged that the councils’ members were not present at work and spent most of their times managing their private affairs. He said majority of them were also not educated enough to deal with the challenges in the province.
Khudayar Waqif, a civil society activist, said majority of the council’s members had obtained votes based on tribal and political affiliations and did not care about serving the public.
He claimed their major work so far has been going to the local departments, trying to hire their cronies.
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