Corruption Epidemic, with Yama Torabi

Dr. Yama Torabi is a Senior Research Associate and a political scientist. He holds two masters degrees, in Political Science and International Relations, and a PhD in International Relations. ​In 2005, Torabi founded Integrity Watch Afghanistan, which, after completing his studies in France, he returned to Kabul to direct between 2009 and 14.He was commissioner and rotating chair of Afghanistan’s Joint Independent Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) between 2012 and 17, and head of the government’s Special Anti-Corruption Secretariat (SACS) from 2017 until earlier this year.We covered a lot of ground on a topic that has characterised both post-2001 administrations in Kabul and has gone a long way to driving sympathy, if not toward the Taliban, certainly away from the government.Torabi and I talk about the origins of the corruption epidemic in Afghanistan and some of it’s key practitioners in the years immediately after the U.S. invasion.We discuss how patronage networks permeate the highest levels of government and the international community’s complicity in enabling it to flourish. Torabi explains some of the ways and means by which corruption exists in the security sector, through fuel imports, electricity, in development, counter-narcotics,and politics. He also explains the country’s biggest post-2001 corruption scandal - the 2010 collapse of Kabul Bank.I ask Torabi about the Taliban assertion that the group is corruption-free and about how successful President Ghani has been at driving anti-corruption efforts after campaigning on it in 2014 and, since, under the constant pressure of international donors and diplomats who have often prioritised short term issues over long-lasting reform.

Om Podcasten

In February this year, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement that charted a path to ending nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan. If all goes according to plan—and there is much to suggest it won’t—all foreign forces will depart in spring, 2021. Meanwhile, long-awaited intra-Afghan negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are underway, once again in Doha.What will happen next? Will the Taliban uphold its side of the agreement with the U.S.? Will Trump even wait to find out? Will the Taliban concede to a ceasefire with the Afghan National Security Forces? And can President Ghani cling to power and steer the country toward peace? If the agreement fails, or indeed if it succeeds, how will history judge the United States for its role in Afghanistan? And what future will be left behind for Afghans who have variously thrived in, endured and raged against the well-intentioned occupation? As Afghanistan teeters, yet again, on a precipice between hope and despair, Afghanistan After America dissects the issues driving the decisions made in Washington D.C., Kabul, Doha and Quetta, and how they’re playing out on both sides of the battlefield, in the streets and inside homes, mosques and businesses across Afghanistan and beyond. Afghanistan After America draws from events of the past that continue to affect the present and explores Afghanistan’s rich and fraught history through some of those who’ve survived to tell their tales. Afghanistan After America is hosted by Andrew Quilty, an Australian journalist who has lived in Afghanistan since 2013 and reported from most of its provinces, collecting numerous accolades for his work along the way. Afghanistan After America is a place for conversations that go beyond the limits of mainstream media audiences. His guests are Afghans and outsiders from all walks of life with unique and confronting perspectives; they are leading analysts, thought-leaders, humanitarians, journalists, veterans and decision-makers from up and down the numerous tangled chains of command.