It seems the US finally figured out that President Karzai won't fix corruption at the country level, so there is a new 13 page strategy policy paper described in the article below that says they will focus on reduction of local level corruption. The article did not provide enough details to understand WHO issued the strategy paper or a location for it, but I assume it was the State Dept.
Good luck...
vj
from McClatchy news service, published in the KnoxWeekly HERE
US gives up fight against fraud
WASHINGTON: Under a new anti-corruption strategy for Afghanistan, the US will not aggressively pursue top Afghan officials suspected of fraud, conceding that
Instead, the document puts a priority on fighting corruption at the local level and strengthening Afghan institutions to deal with it through an array of new and existing initiatives. Whether that approach will make a difference remains unclear.
When it comes to dealing with corrupt senior Afghan officials, the Obama administration ''may be compelled to act unilaterally'' when the Afghan government chooses not to, by freezing the officials' financial assets in the US or preventing their travel abroad, the strategy says.
The guidelines, obtained by McClatchy Newspapers, are designed to direct US government efforts against one of the most serious problems threatening the counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan, backed by nearly 100,000 US military personnel.
The US, which has funded billions of dollars in development projects in Afghanistan, hopes to persuade Afghans to trust and support their own, insurgent-threatened government. But corruption permeates every aspect of Afghan society, from the bribes that officials demand for permits of all kinds to powerbrokers' control of resources such as minerals and timber.
The shift away from prosecuting senior Afghan powerbrokers reflects deep tensions with Mr Karzai over the issue, which exploded into public view last year. In one case, Mr Karzai intervened to have a top aide released from prison after he was arrested by the Major Crimes Taskforce, a US-backed body. The Afghan government dropped all charges against the aide, Mohammad Zia Salehi, in November.
The new 13-page strategy document outlines an essentially bottom-up, rather than top-down, approach to fighting corruption, one that is led by the Afghans themselves.
A State Department official emphasised that while the strategy is an overall plan, ''we have no misconception that we're going to eliminate corruption in Afghanistan.''
Tribune Media Services
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