MEC Bamyan Trip Report, Dec 2017

The MEC Committee met with many stakeholders in Bamiyan, including the Governor, the Provincial Council; the Provincial Directors of Education, Health, Agriculture and Mining; the Attorney General’s Office; the Appellate Court; Culture, the Police chief of the province, the Tazkira(ID) department; civil society representatives; UNAMA; the Chair of the University and a sample of students; and visited one School for girls. The committee members had 16 meetings in total. The objective of the trip was to find out about the corruption concerns in the province and to gain a sense of the anti-corruption drive of the provincial government and other citizens. Not all opinions were the same, but the overall views were that the main corruption challenges were in the following nine areas: education, health, the courts, agriculture, the municipality, the police, recruitment of government officials at all levels, contracts, and the influence of Members of Parliament. Of these, the three that had the highest levels of corruption concern to citizens were recruitment for government positions, the courts and the police. MEC heard in many of the interviews that the overall level of corruption in Bamiyan province is perceived to be lower than two years ago. The province demonstrated some strong resilience to fight corruption. MEC heard of many positive aspects of the province, such as the nature of the people, the strength of civil society, the official support for civil society, the personal commitment of many of the individuals, and the passion of Bamiyan’s citizens and students for real progress against corruption. MEC also heard many messages of hope, which can be summarized from one civil society interviewee: “I can tell you clearly that the people of Bamiyan really do have the will to fight corruption.” The top ten issues for corruption are: 1) Education 2) Health 3) The courts and prosecutors 4) Agriculture 5) The municipality 6) Police 7) Cultural heritage 8) Land authority 9) Recruitment of government officials at all levels, 10) Contracts 11) The influence of Members of Parliament