The Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) on Monday issued its findings and recommendations of its Ministry-Wide Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment (MVCA) of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP).
The report begins with acknowledging the issue of corruption, “Presently, corruption in Afghanistan’s mining sector finances insurgency and other violent criminals and is a key driver of conflict, which produces fragility. Fragility in turn leads to rent-seeking behavior, further driving corruption. Breaking out of this vicious circle requires immediate action by MoMP on a number of fronts, informed by MEC’s recommendations. “
The key findings of the committee included issues of vulnerabilities associated with rent-seeking behaviour, a weak ministry governance and capacity, and lack of government accountability.
Overall for the extractive industry, it was found that there are weaknesses in the industry anti-corruption system, weak governance, poor relationships between national and sub-national governments, politicisation of decision-making Process, gaps in due diligence and illegal mining.
For the ministry of Mines and Petroleum, the findings pointed out that there issues are weak Ministry capacity, issues in working conditions of the ministry, weakness in ministry’s anti-corruption system, internal audit weaknesses, poor Human Resource’s practices, weak information ,a age,net systems and inappropriate use of donor funds.
The report also suggests certain measures to end the inappropriate interference in the ministry of mines and petroleum recruitment process which has, according to the report led to patronage, cronyism and nepotism.
