Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/extended-interview-with-karzai-we-do-what-is-right-for-afghanistan Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript In an exclusive interview with Margaret Warner, Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledges there is corruption at different levels of government, but says the country is working to address it and that the international community must respect the decisions of the Afghan courts. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. MARGARET WARNER: You said in your acceptance speech last week that your government had been seriously undermined by corruption. What do you mean by that? What does this corruption consist of? HAMID KARZAI: Well, when we say corruption, it means the usual corruption in any government, especially in a third world country like Afghanistan, with years of breakdowns and lack of governance, lack of institutions and lack of capacity. Certain laws and procedures and management style that causes corruption, that delays work that causes corruption. MARGARET WARNER: Do you mean you have to pay for government services? HAMID KARZAI: Exactly. MARGARET WARNER: Under the table? HAMID KARZAI: Under the table. And then we also mean corruption of a different kind which is a lot more serious, which is new to Afghanistan, which is with the arrival of a lot of money to Afghanistan, with the contractual mechanisms, the contracts that go from one to second to third to fourth, the lack of transparency in the award of contracts, the serious corruption in implementing projects, in buying bad quality material, a project that costs $10 million actually receives $3 million or $4 million or even less than that. For that sort of corruption, it's the international community also that shares responsibility with us, and that's what I hope we can correct together.But the stigma falls mainly on Afghanistan because that's where it happens, and that's why we should address it first and also hopefully that our partners in the international community will also recognize problems on their side and try to correct them with us.