40% of aid to Afghanistan goes to consultants: report

Nearly half the $15 billion in foreign aid given by Britain, the US and other countries to rebuild Afghanistan since 2001 has been spent on consultants and contractors, according to a report by aid agencies released yesterday. The report by the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), which represents 94 aid agencies, reveals staggering levels of inefficiency and waste within both the international aid effort and the Afghan government. The report's author, Matt Waldman, from Oxfam, estimates that $6 billion, approximately 40 percent of the total given, has been spent on consultants, mostly private security contractors. The same sum would fund the entire Afghan education budget for the next 20 years. The report also warns of the danger of corruption, claiming that Afghan officials have no records of how $5.3 billion was spent. Many of the nations that pledged money after the fall of the Taliban, have failed to deliver, with the report finding a $10 billion shortfall in the money pledged. The US is the biggest donor to Afghanistan, but it also has one of the biggest shortfalls, with the Afghan government saying it delivered only half of its $ 10.4 billion commitment between 2002 and 2008, ACBAR says. British officials say that country has spent $990 million specifically on reconstruction, with a further $220 million in the coming year. The British government also insists that 80 percent of its aid goes through the Afghan government so that it will be capable of managing its own affairs in the future. However, a prominent Afghan Member of Parliament, Shukria Barakzai, claimed: "This report is wrong, the situation is worse than this. In every dollar, only 11 cents is going to Afghans. The rest is returning to the West." "Increasing insecurity and criminality is jeopardizing progress in Afghanistan," the report says. "With low government revenues, international assistance constitutes around 90 percent of all public expenditure in the country," it says. "Thus how it is spent has an enormous impact on the lives of almost all Afghans and will determine the success of reconstruction and development." Among thousands of refugees displaced by fighting in Helmand and camped on the edge of the capital Lashkargar, this week, the Telegraph found deep pessimism. "Some NGOs are working really hard, but they are only helping a few people," said one man, named Rahmatullah. "Don't mention President [Hamid] Karzai. We hate him. Every Afghan should be a millionaire, but where is the money?"