Rajiv Shah identifies four key elements in the U.S. strategy to ensure wise spending of aid for Afghanistan: oversight and accountability, staffing, contracting, and direct assistance.
U.S.-backed programs in Afghanistan place a premium on accountability, according to the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“Central to all of our efforts is an emphasis on accountability, including more rigorous monitoring and evaluation. This is an area on which I am keenly focused as Administrator, and which represents a key part of our Agency’s reform agenda, and our team’s approach in Afghanistan,” Shah said July 28 in his written testimony before the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.
To enforce proper oversight and accountability of U.S. aid programs in the Asian nation, USAID has put in place multiple oversight systems including pre-award conferences, regular monitoring and evaluation actions, site visits and reviews of payment claims, Shah said. The agency’s Office of the Inspector General will audit approximately 25 percent of the Afghanistan portfolio on an annual basis, its “most aggressive approach to auditing anywhere in the world,” he added.
USAID has also increased the number of its staff in Afghanistan to 420 personnel as of July. Shah said 55 percent of the American staff are located outside of Kabul.
“We are also taking steps to ensure that our staff gets out frequently to assess performance against a set of established targets. Being placed in the field allows these personnel to monitor and oversee USAID interventions in their regions and keep activities aligned with the priorities put forth by the Afghan people,” Shah said.
In contracting, the aid agency is working to decrease its reliance on large, multi-year agreements and shift to smaller, shorter and more flexible agreements. These smaller agreements are managed by field-based USAID staff, “who are closer to the actual implementation and provide a higher degree of monitoring and oversight to the project progress as well as the use of those funds,” Shah said.
USAID has also increased its direct assistance to Afghanistan to help build the local capacity. Shah said the agency has identified several organizations such as the public health, finance and communication and information technology ministries as well as the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund that will directly receive funds “for specific purposes.” He added that agreements with the three ministries granted USAID with audit rights on the use of its funding.
The Obama administration has requested USD3.4 billion for USAID’s activities in Afghanistan in fiscal 2011. The amount comprises USD1 billion to support good governance, USD605 million for conflict mitigation, USD525 million for infrastructure projects, and USD420 million for agricultural initiatives.
Also at the House hearing was Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who welcomed the congressional passage of the USD6.1 billion supplemental budget request that includes funding for key programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Haiti.
