240830Z Gardez PRT Paktya Provincial Council visit to Gardez PRT

240830Z Gardez PRT Paktya Provincial Council visit to Gardez PRT
The Paktya provincial council visited FOB Gardez and the following was discussed:

THREATS TO THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL (PC) MEMBERS

The provincial council stated the following related to several threats they have received: A month and a half ago a hand grenade was thrown in their compound downtown Gardez. One month ago a night letter was left in Jani Khel stating that the provincial council, parliament members, and the Chamkani senator should stop working and supporting the government. The letter was stamped with the Taliban mark.

They have received information that there are many ACMs in the Chamkani mountains. The Kushis see them frequently. The border of Chamkani and Jani Khel is a stronghold of the Taliban.

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL LACK OF RESOURCES/OPERATIONAL FUNDS

The provincial council does not have operational funds that allow them to move freely and do their work properly. They depend on vehicles on loan and gas that they pay out of pocket. This limits greatly their capability to promote the government of Afghanistan with the local people and find out about the peoples concerns.

CORRUPTION IN THE AFGHAN GOVERNMENT

The Chamkani Chief of Police and the Danwa Patan District Commissioner are fighting for the control (earnings) of illegal checkpoints.

The people of Afghanistan keep loosing their trust in the government because of the high amount of corrupted government officials. The general view of the Afghans is that the current government is worst than the Taliban.

Question to the PC members:

If the corruption in Afghanistan is so big, when did it all start and how far back in history?

Answer:

Note: One PC member that was not actively participating decided to answer this question. This member appears to be the oldest in the group.

That is an excellent question. When the Russians were here the corruption did not exist. Later, when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan corruption did not exits. During none of the previous government in the whole history of Afghanistan this concept ever existed. The corrupted government officials are a new concept brought to Afghanistan by the AMERICANS.

This same PC member did the following question: Is this DEMOCRACY? or Is this the DEMOCRACY that the AMERICANS bring to Afghanistan?. This question was answered with a: NO, a corrupted government is not democracy.

The PC member continued explaining that previously in Afghanistan it was a shame to do something wrong like: theft, kill, and any other immoral act. Now everything depends on the amount of money you have. Years ago, if someone committed something immoral it was a shame to the whole family, now if you have money it does not matter. You can get to jail but it does not matter. You just have to pay the right people, the right amount and you will be out in a couple of days. With the Taliban if you did something wrong you pay for it, the money did not help you or exempt you from the right thing. This is what the people of Afghanistan see that the Americans brought to Afghanistan. This is the DEMOCRACY that they are living.

Question to the PC members:

Does corruption exist in Kabul?

Answer:

Kabul is the root of the corruption. Is the most corrupted placed in Afghanistan but, because the government pays more attention to the capital the people live in a better condition. Kabul has corruption and development and the people live in better conditions than the other areas of the country. To give an example of how the corruption works from the higher levels to the lower levels: To obtain a provincial government position (District Commissioner, ANP Chief, etc.) the officials pay for that position. Then they work their way to re-coup the money they pay and make additional profit. There are no consequences of doing things wrong. These because of the DEMOCRACY and HUMAN RIGHTS. If people go to jail is it just a matter of paying to get out. Better than that, if you are corrupted they move you to other province/place/position. You did wrong in Paktya, lets move you to Khwost.

The peoples view of President Karzai if that he is a puppet of the Americans. So, if the Afghan government does things wrong the peoples blame the Americans. The people see that most of the government officials are repatriates coming from other countries and whenever things get bad they will leave. Some of these government officials came with no government experience at all and with the only interest of making their own profit/benefit in Afghanistan.

—— ———, CONCLUSION:

This is the general feeling of the common Afghan people or at least the common Pashtum. The majority of the Afghans are not wealthy people, if the people keep identifying DEMOCRACY as a system that is worst than the Taliban government. The people will support the Anti-Coalition forces and the security condition will degenerate. This is a current important issue that should be work from the higher levels of the coalition government/forces.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

DO an Information Operation campaign explaining the Afghan people: What DEMOCRACY is? How a democratic systems works? What they can do to report wrong doing? (The last only if there will be real consequences to the wrong doing, if not the confidents/narrators will be squash by the system).

Create an organization that investigates public corruption. This could be work by either the Department of Justice or an Office of Inspector General.

Create a budget for the Provincial Council and give them the support needed to work against corruption. The PCs are the elected members that must be able to do direct contact with the people.

If someone is identified as corrupted take him completely out of the public service. Do not move him/move the problem to other location.