The Afghan Attorney General’s Office (AGO) made remarkable progress by implementing 80% of the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) recommendations.
While releasing their End-State Assessment of the Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment (VCA) report, MEC said the AGO had demonstrated a high level of commitment to bring about sustainable change in their administration and in Afghan people’s lives.
The broader justice sector was able to benefit by merging parallel departments and duplicated tasks. The AGO also improved its human resources management by creating more transparency in the recruitment, developing terms of references for prosecutors, and conducting regular and systematic performance reviews.
Moreover, all prosecutors declared their assets, as is legally required. The AGO also expanded its presence in 57 districts and raised public awareness through joint programs of the AGO and Ministry of Justice.
However, the report points to the existence of major obstacles and corruption risks which continue to undermine the public’s trusts in the justice system’s criminal procedures.
The MEC outlines vulnerabilities in the lack of transparency in granting bail or detaining the accused, depriving the accused of their right to have legal representation during the arrest
and investigation process, lack of transparency and weak oversight in enforcing the court verdicts, and keeping inmates in prisons beyond the time of their court sentence.
They added that addressing these vulnerabilities will require consistent and systematic efforts from all institutions and stakeholders involved in the justice sector.
