[A-List] Afghan aid "wastage" under the spotlight at London conference

["tony black" <tal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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From: mart
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Subject: [stopnato] Afghan aid "wastage" under the spotlight at London
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060129/ts_afp/afghanistanbritainconferenceaid_060129021335

AFP via Yahoo - Jan 28, 2006

Afghan aid "wastage" under the spotlight
at London conference

[ " 'In Afghanistan the wastage of aid is sky-high:
there is real looting going on, mainly by private
enterprises. It is a scandal,' says World Bank
director in Afghanistan Jean Mazurelle. 'In 30
years of my career, I have never seen anything
like it.' " ]

[ "The finger is in particular pointed at the United
States, which favours US firms for its projects." ]

[ " 'In the end, there isn't much left for the Afghans,'
Mazurelle said." ]


KABUL (AFP) - Hefty salaries and commissions,
overpricing, corruption-- these are eating chunks
out of the billions of aid dollars that have flooded
into destitute Afghanistan in the past four years,
officials say.

The issue is souring Afghans' attitude towards the
country's substantial foreign aid community and is
set to be a key topic of next week's London
conference between the government and its donors.

"In Afghanistan the wastage of aid is sky-high: there
is real looting going on, mainly by private enterprises.
It is a scandal," says World Bank director in
Afghanistan Jean Mazurelle.

"In 30 years of my career, I have never seen anything
like it."

Mazurelle estimates that 35 to 40 percent of the aid
to this war-shattered country is "badly spent."

"We would do better by improving the way we spend
the aid than by increasing it," he said.

The government finance ministry agrees. "Forty percent
of the aid could be used more efficiently," an official
there says.

Part of the problem is that there are no controls on
the roughly 10 billion dollars in reconstruction aid
that has been sent to Afghanistan since the ouster
of the fundamentalist Taliban in late 2001,
Mazurelle says.

"There is no gatekeeping and the Afghan government,
which only handles a little of this aid, cannot object,"
he said.

The aid has had some results.

It has allowed, for example, the retarring of 1,740
kilometres (1,078 miles) of roads and helped
13,000 villages under a government development
project called the National Solidarity Programme.

And it has put six million children in school and
accommodated four million refugees who have
returned from exile mainly in Pakistan and Iran,
according to the United Nations.

But in the far-flung provinces, countless badly
constructed or incomplete houses and clinics
are testament to shoddy workmanship.

And reconstruction is generally agreed to have
been slow, with residents of even the capital
Kabul getting only a few hours of city power
every two days.

The reconstruction has been "extremely limited"
in the provinces, a UN official admits.

"The donors subcontract to the NGOs
(non-governmental organisations), which then
subcontract to businesses or local NGOs,
which sometimes mess up the work," he said.

"Admittedly it is difficult to find trained Afghans
able to handle the projects. But there is also no
international control downstream."

The finger is in particular pointed at the United
States, which favours US firms for its projects.

According to the Washington Post, US construction
company Louis Berger has built or renovated 533
buildings, including clinics and schools, at an
average cost of 226,000 dollars each.

The Afghan government could have done the job for
50,000 dollars a unit, the paper said.

The aid to Afghanistan is also spent on maintaining
the army of foreign aid workers who have
temporarily put up base here.

It is "wasted on high salaries, large overheads, luxury
cars, luxury houses ... that Afghanistan cannot afford
at all," President Hamid Karzai said this month.

The plethora of international consultants placed in
government and non-government offices -- with
mixed results -- take between 15 and 25 percent of
the total aid, according to estimates.

And the cost of protecting expatriates living in the
insurgency-hit nation takes another 30 percent,
which goes to mostly foreign security firms.

Some of the aid pledged to the country is also used
to maintain head offices in faraway capitals.

"For a contract of 45 million dollars recently given
to the FAO (the UN's Food and Agriculture
Organisation), four million has to go towards
financing its headquarters in Rome," a European
official said.

"In the end, there isn't much left for the Afghans,"
Mazurelle said.

The issue will come under the spotlight at the
January 31-February 1 meeting in London between
the Afghan government and its 70 donor nations a
nd various aid organisations.

A five-year development plan, called the "Afghanistan
Compact", to be signed at the meeting, includes an
entire annex on "improving the effectiveness of aid."

The text calls for transparency and accountability,
and for the government to take the lead in setting
development priorities, but does not impose any
demands on the signatories.
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