Inspector General Ghezal Haris on Saturday said that her office has not managed to start its work in handling major corruption cases involving government officials. She cited a lack of legal framework as the main issue hindering the body in carrying out out its assessments of the corruption cases against high level government officials.
 
Back in 2018,  President Ashraf Ghani in a decree announced the formation of the Inspector General’s Office and ordered the legal framework of the body to be completed in three months.
 
But Ghani appointed the head of the body one year after his decree.
 
“Whenever the legal proceedings are completed, the inspector general may address the complaints of the public against the high level government officials,” said Ghezal Haris.
 
At the time, Ghani said that any claim of corruption against the government officials including the president must be assessed.
 
The administration was created amid criticism of widespread corruption in the government and in the wake of reports of sexual exploitation of the women in the government institutions.
 
“Actually, the inspector general is taking orders from the president, there is no legal definition for the body,” said Rahmatullah Bezhanpor, a political analyst in Kabul.
 
“The commissions were created for two purposes, first to control the public mindset and secondly to make happy the political personalities in pursuit of personal agendas,” said Arash Shahrivar, a university lecturer.
 
“The anti-corruption campaign will not yield an outcome unless we end interference and corruption in the independent anti-corruption institutions,” said Naser Taimoori, a researcher of Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA).
 
Recently the IGO was asked to investigate the management campaign against COVID-1. Apparently, this was the first mission assigned to the IGO.

But the mission has encountered some shortcomings.
 
Haris said that the Ministry of Public Health is not providing the necessary information.
 
“There is a lack of capacity in the government's hospitals for use of ventilators as many of them have been left unused,” she said.