Petty corruption in Kabul: The traffic department.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – JANUARY 29, 2013: A seller works outside the traffic department in Kabul. He provides cigarettes, phone cards and booklets that explain the rules of the road. Obtaining a vehicle registration or renewing a driver’s license became so painstaking and time-consuming that an entire underworld has emerged around it. Outside of the department work 200 or so “dealers” who spend their days bribing public officials. They make their way inside the sprawling department to the offices of their contacts and are able to speed up the processes. But are still many who can’t afford to pay the extra money for bribes. At the traffic department, next to the line of dealers, there is a line of men attempting to renew their own licenses and registrations legitimately, forced to put up with the days or weeks or waiting. (Photo by Lorenzo Tugnoli/For the Washington Post)