Corruption targeted in Afghan cabinet reshuffle

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's parliament has approved a cabinet reshuffle, ordered by President Hamid Karzai and meant to signal a new resolve to tackle endemic corruption, officials said Tuesday.

Violence in Afghanistan has reached record levels as the war against the Taliban enters its eighth year. Western leaders have pointed to a lack of good governance and rife corruption as factors feeding the insurgency.

Karzai swapped several of his cabinet ministers around this month but the new appointments needed approval by parliament. Deputies voted late Monday to endorse the new postings.

"We are happy that parliament approved three new ministers and they will officially start their jobs today," said parliamentary spokesman Asif Nang.

The most significant change, and one that has been praised by Karzai's Western backers, is the appointment of the former education minister, Hanif Atmar, to the Interior Ministry.

Atmar is seen as a capable administrator who has made great improvements in education and has an untainted reputation.

The United States has poured more than $3 billion into training and expanding the Afghan National Police in the past two years, seeing the force as key to the fight against the Taliban insurgency because, unlike the army, it has bases in every town.

REFORMS

But the program to reform the police has been hampered by corruption at the Interior Ministry, diplomatic sources say, where officials demand large bribes for the appointment of top officers who then recoup the money from lower ranks and ultimately the Afghan public.

Afghanistan stands at 176th out of 180 countries in Transparency International's corruption perceptions index.

"Bringing reforms to the government is vital and is a continuous process. Whenever there is a need to bring changes and new faces, President Karzai will take action," Karzai's spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told a news conference in Kabul.

"Rather than doing nothing, I think everybody benefits, whenever we start reforming. Reforming certainly takes time, but it will have a positive outcome," he said when asked if it was too late to start bringing in reforms.

Many Afghans are becoming increasingly frustrated with corruption at all levels and with the slow pace of development in a country where half the population lives below the poverty line.

Afghanistan is due to hold presidential elections in the autumn of 2009 and Karzai is keen to show voters and his Western backers that his government is serious about tackling corruption.

The outgoing Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Moqbel was expected to become minister for refugees but failed to show up in parliament for the vote because he was ill, said Nang. His new appointment was not voted on.

"We haven't heard anything from Moqbel saying he is not interested in the new post," he said.

Other changes included Parliamentary Affairs Minister Farooq Wardak moving to the Education Ministry and former governor of Kandahar, Asadullah Khaled, taking over the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Asef Rahimi becomes agriculture minister.

(Editing by Paul Tait)