Another Place to Cut the Budget

Okay, we want to save Afghanistan and bring it into at least the 20th century. We have a comprehensive plan to do so. One part of our plan is to kill the bad guys. Another part is to improve that country's banking and financial system. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR) has some opinions as to how well we are doing with the latter. His recent audit says not well.

The first problem is that we have more than one agency working on improving the banking system. They don't work well together - cooordination of their efforts is minimal - nor does any one of them do an outstanding job. For example, they do not record the serial numbers of cash disbursed to contractors and other recipients. They have difficulty tracking the money they pay their contractors, some of which winds up in hands we don't approve of.

And then there's the problem of dealing with the Afghan's historic way of doing things. For example, they are not too concerned with bringing thieves and fraudsters to court. Karzai doesn't allow our agents into the central bank. The banks can't or won't track electronic payments, so how do we know where the money is going. Afghan officials at the Kabul airport seem to want to make it difficult to track cash flowing out of the airport, especially that taken by VIPs.

Even if we get our house in order (which would save some money), there is little chance of us changing the way Afghans have lived for centuries. It's time to declare victory and leave.