KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban have dismissed a newly released Transparency International report showing Afghanistan’s decline in the global corruption ranking, calling the findings “speculative and inaccurate.”
In its 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released on Tuesday, the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog ranked Afghanistan 169th out of 182 countries and territories, a drop of four places from 165th in 2024. The report gave Afghanistan a score of 16 out of 100, placing it among the world’s most corrupt states.
The CPI measures perceived levels of public sector corruption based on assessments by experts and business figures.
The 2025 report identified fragile states such as Afghanistan, Myanmar, and North Korea as particularly vulnerable due to restricted civic space, opaque political and financial systems, and the absence of effective democratic oversight and independent judiciaries
Responding to the report, Hamdullah Fetrat, the Taliban deputy spokesperson, said the group has taken “concrete steps to eliminate corruption” and claimed that corruption levels in Afghanistan have “significantly decreased.”
In a post on X, Fetrat argued that Transparency International has no on-the-ground presence in Afghanistan and “instead of conducting field research and relying on credible sources, it makes speculative judgments that are not accurate.”
“We hope they come and see for themselves how much effective work the Islamic Emirate [Taliban] has done to reform administrative procedures, eliminate corruption, and create transparency,” he added.
Since returning to power, the Taliban have repeatedly claimed to have eliminated corruption, but independent assessments indicate otherwise. Transparency on public funds, tax revenue, and national resources remains limited, and forms of corruption such as diversion of public funds, nepotism, and abuse of official powers continue to be widespread.
