Ahmad Zia Massoud, the president’s special representative on reforms and good governance on Wednesday said in Kabul that high-ranking officials of the National Unity Government (NUG) are somehow involved in corruption.

Attending a meeting for Anti-Corruption Day, Massoud said some officials try to give multimillion dollar contracts to their relatives and they then take a share.

“There are high level officials in government who give the multimillion (dollar) contracts to people close to them and then they benefit from the contract,” he said. 

Massoud also spoke out about political corruption and said elections should be held free of intervention.

“The institutions involved in political issues have a responsibility to carry out their work transparently and to not betray Afghan people,” Massoud said.

The Afghan Anti-Corruption Network meanwhile warned that continued corruption will have a negative impact on the progress made in the country to date and claimed that even casualties among security forces are somehow linked to the phenomenon.  

“Afghan security forces also are being killed because of corruption in government departments,” said Khan Zaman Amarkhel, head of the Afghan Anti-Corruption Network. 

Amarkhel did not clarify this statement but there have been reports in the past of claims that security forces allegedly sold ammunition and weapons to insurgents, which in turn puts them at risk. 

Transparency International meanwhile said recently that government institutions need to cooperate in the fight against corruption and that a commission should be established to supervise them.