By Abdul Hadi Mayar
KABUL, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Right a day after Western media reported that NATO intends to set up, what it called, Afghan FBI, the government of Hamid Karzai announced the establishment of a task force to fight corruption and other high profile crimes by government officials.
"Major Crimes Task Force, consisting of investigators from Interior Ministry and National Security Directorate, was formed to investigate kidnappings, public and administration corruption, as well as organized crimes," Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar announced at a press conference in Kabul on Monday.
Flanked by the US and the British ambassadors, he said the taskforce will check and investigate graft and bribery in government departments and among senior officials to fight corruption.
On Sunday, the London-based Guardian newspaper reported that Western soldiers are to begin investigating high-profile Afghans suspected of involvement in corruption.
It said: "A task force being established by NATO in Kabul will consist of a small team of anti-corruption officers, as well as a criminal investigator and prosecutor who hopes senior generals will be able to stop cases being derailed by opposition from the Afghan government."
"Information gathered by NATO will be handed over to the major crimes task force, a wing of Afghanistan's intelligence service but trained by the FBI and Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency," the paper said dubbing the new agency as an Afghan FBI.
Atmar admitted the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Europe would support the newly formed anti-corruption organ in carrying out its responsibilities.
The unit will work with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Britain's Scotland Yard and EUPOL, the European Union's police training mission to Afghanistan.
The step follows a strong worded statement by the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which warned the Karzai government to take effective steps to end corruption in his administration.
Earlier, U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and NATO Secretary General, Anders Gogh Rasmussen had also warned Karzai to fight corruption and improve governance.
"We are not going to be providing any civilian aid to Afghanistan unless we have certification that if it goes into the Afghan government in any form, that we are going to have ministries that we can hold accountable," Clinton said in an interview with ABC television.
"Now that the election is finally over, we're looking to see tangible evidence that the government, led by the president but going all the way down to the local level, will be more responsive to the needs of the people," she stressed in the interview.
A spokesman of President Hamid Karzai, Hamid Elmi on Monday took a serious exception to Clinton's statement, saying that the Afghan government would not give right to any one to interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan.
However, he said his administration was ready to account for that part of international aid, which has been spent through the Afghan government.
Rejecting Western media reports about misappropriation of foreign aid, Afghan officials have been claiming in recent days that much of the international aid had been channeled through Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs), saying that only 20to 30 percent of the amount has been spent by the government.
Elmi said there was also a need to reform the spending of international aid by NGOs.
For his part, Atmar ruled out any foreign pressure for setting up the new anti-corruption organization, saying it had been set up earlier but it was dysfunctional due to lack of resources.
The Guardian said that need for such a body has been highlighted by the breakthrough arrest in October of a top police officer in the southern province of Kandahar after an investigation into thousands of "ghost salaries" of non-existent policemen under his command.
"No high officials involved in corruption would have immunity from the law anymore," Atmar said.
To ensure good governance and fight administrative and financial corruption has certainly remained a difficult task in Afghanistan, where state institutions and laws have not been so strong to rein in intractable elements of the country's tribal setup.
Therefore, observers say the new organization will serve as a barometer to test the nerves of President Karzai's new administration in the face of mounting international pressure and deteriorating law and order and socio-economic situation in the country.
