Limited Interagency Coordination and Insufficient Controls over U.S. Funds in Afghanistan Hamper U.S. Efforts to Develop the Afghan Financial Sector and Safeguard U.S. Cash

摘要

Since 2002, Congress has appropriated more than $70 billion to implement security and development assistance projects in Afghanistan, with some of those funds converted into cash and flowing through the Afghan economy. The United States is implementing programs to increase the capacity of Afghanistan's central bank (Da Afghanistan Bank, or DAB) to regulate the nation's 17 commercial banks and to strengthen U.S. and Afghan law enforcement agencies' oversight over the flow of funds through the Afghan economy. This report (1) evaluates U.S. efforts to improve the capacity of the Afghan government to regulate the financial sector (which includes commercial banks and informal financial organizations, or hawalas) and (2) assesses the controls that U.S. agencies use to track U.S. funds as they flow through the Afghan economy. To accomplish these objectives, we reviewed Afghan laws and U.S. policies, plans, and progress reports relevant to U.S. financial sector development initiatives. We met with officials from the Departments of State, Homeland Security (DHS), Treasury, Defense (DOD), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). We conducted our work in Washington, D.C., and Kabul, Afghanistan, from October 2010 to July 2011 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.