Afghan Minister Denies Allegation of Bribery - Article Review

There are many factors in business that have the potential to impact nations. Ethics which is a very important component of a nation's well-being. In many countries bribery is one of the routes citizens choose as a way of life. These practices influence the way international business is regularly conducted. However, offering or receiving bribes or engaging in corrupt practices is illegal in most of these countries. Nevertheless, corrupt practices are part of the culture of doing business; unless businesses conform to such practices, in various cases, international business cannot be performed.

In the article "Afghan Minister Denies Allegation of Bribery" from the Wall Street Journal, dated February 15, 2011; bribery was the main subject. Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal and former Interior Minister Haneef Atmar were called for full investigation of accusations of being part of the tens of millions of dollars made in bribes and other payoffs by executives from the country's largest bank Kabul Bank. These payoffs were intended to keep regulators from inspecting the bank's books since their main focused was to keep secret the many illegal transactions that were taking place by proprietors of the bank. Around five months ago Kabul Bank was about to collapse due to public allegations that its executives were making favorable loans to themselves and to politically connected associates. This issue has been highlighted as one of the largest corruption scandals since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.

When the information became public to the world by the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Zakhilwal demanded to the Attorney General's office to make this issue a priority since his name was involved. On the other hand, former Interior Minister Haneef Atmar defended himself by saying that the evidences against him were fabricated to cover up the corruption in President Karzaj's administration; the President Karzai's office, the Attorney General's office nor the U.S. Embassy in Kabul comment on Atmar's statement.

This is one of the examples of the many issues of corruption that have occurred over the years, the abuse of public office for private gain has attracted renewed interest, both among academics and policymakers. Bribery scandals have reached the top governments in both developing countries and major industrial countries as seen in many occasions. Payment of bribes and corrupt practices continue being a major issue that plagues the business world in the United States and abroad. Unethical transactions are done for a wide variety of reasons. For instance, bribes are paid to agencies to acquire a particular contract for their company; bribes are paid to disregard environmental, safety or health wrongdoings or just as seen on the article "Afghan Minister Denies Allegations of Bribery" to keep regulators from examining the bank's books and make public illegal transactions. In most of the bribery/corruption scandals is very difficult for executives to continue with their corrupt practices when the information is spread. People are empowered and the stronghold of corruption is being weakened when official, procedural and other variety of information reaches down to the lowest grassroots level to all sections of the society.

Bribery and corruption scandals continue being a major concern to many institutions in many nations. Incidents of bribery differ from one country to another but everyone has a diverse concept about it. Through business ethics human actions can be judged right or wrong however business ethics is not primarily concerned with the description of moral systems in societies

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that inquiries into the nature of ultimate