Afghanistan graft sharply up as insurgency grows too

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's government came under fresh pressure on Thursday to tackle widespread graft after a survey found soaring corruption was giving political strength to Taliban insurgents ahead of a fresh U.S. and NATO war push.

Corruption in the country had more than doubled since 2007 and nine years after the start of the war to oust the Taliban, was now at levels well above fundamentalist rule, costing $1 billion a year in an $11 billion economy.

One in seven Afghans now regularly paid bribes.

"There is a clear link between the increased power of the Taliban and increased corruption in the state," survey author Lorenzo Delesgues of local anti-graft watchdog Integrity Watch Afghanistan told reporters.

International donors and military commanders want President Hamid Karzai to drastically improve governance standards or risk counterbalancing a U.S. and NATO offensive against insurgents in ahead of a U.S. troop phase-down starting in July 2011.

The survey was carried out late last year in all but two of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, and was the first national look at the petty corruption that most affects ordinary Afghans, rather than the major graft issues plaguing Karzai's government.

Corruption hit hardest among poorer people in rural areas, the survey found, including the south where the insurgency is strongest and where 150,000 international troops are now concentrating under a Washington-masterminded surge strategy.

But encouragingly, Delesgues said, only 14 percent of people actually saw the Taliban as well placed to deal with corruption demands affecting access to justice, education, land tenure, health, home electricity and local government.

"It's interesting. They (Taliban) grow because of corruption, but at the same time they are not the solution," Delesgues said. "There is still a belief that the solution will be brought by the institutions, by the state."

More than 70 percent of Afghans believed the government and associated bureaucracy, including police and the courts, were the most corrupt sectors, and 50 percent thought that helped the expansion of the Taliban, the survey found.

But the government also ranked second on a list of institutions most able to battle corruption, ahead of media and international aid agencies, but behind local mullahs.

IMPORTANT TRUST

"The presidential office is among them. There is an important trust in the this office and in the political will that could be generated from that office in order to fight corruption," Delesgues said.

The Taliban ranked last, just behind private business.

Average petty bribes ranged from around $70 -- a monthly salary for poorer people -- to obtain identity documents or passports, to around $180 for access to higher education. The average bribe paid to a police officer was $123.

The Interior Ministry overseeing the police, the Justice Ministry controlling courts, and Afghanistan's main intelligence agency -- the National Directorate of Security (NDS) -- were the most corrupt departments, most people said.

A former British soldier was last week acquitted of trying to bribe NDS officials for the release of two impounded vehicles.

Around a quarter of the 6,500 people surveyed reported having paid a bribe last year, but Delesgues said Afghans were not historically corrupt people.

"Corruption is not cultural in Afghanistan," Delesgues said. "It is something that is eroding very slowly peoples' trust. In the hearts and minds battle, petty corruption is key and needs to be addressed."

(Editing by David Fox)