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SIGAR: Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund: The World Bank Improved Its Monitoring, Performance Measurement, and Oversight, But Other Management Issues Persist

Countries
Afghanistan
Sources
Govt. USA
Publication date
Origin
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WHAT SIGAR REVIEWED

Senate Report 116-126, accompanying the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill, 2020, directed SIGAR to conduct an assessment of “the internal controls of multilateral trust funds for Afghanistan reconstruction that receive U.S. contributions, to include any third-party evaluations of the internal controls of the Afghan government ministries receiving assistance from multilateral trust funds, and SIGAR is directed to report to the Committee if access to records is restricted for programs funded with U.S. contributions.” In response, SIGAR initiated this evaluation to assess the steps the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank (“the Bank”) took since SIGAR’s April 2018 performance audit of the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) to improve its management, oversight, and internal controls. SIGAR’s 2018 ARTF report made five recommendations to the USAID Administrator to improve overall Bank management and oversight of ARTF funding. Those recommendations called for USAID to work with the Bank or other ARTF donors to (1) expand the scope of the Bank’s field monitoring, (2) improve public transparency and donor access to information, (3) evaluate the performance of third-party monitors, (4) ensure the Bank adheres to its performance management guidance, and (5) allow donors more flexibility in holding the Bank and the Afghan government accountable for ARTF implementation.
The objectives of this evaluation were to evaluate the extent to which USAID and the Bank took steps to (1) implement SIGAR’s April 2018 recommendations, and (2) address any newly identified challenges to managing and overseeing the ARTF.

WHAT SIGAR RECOMMENDS

SIGAR is not making any recommendations in this report. In February 2022, SIGAR received written comments on its draft report from USAID’s Mission Director for Afghanistan, and from the World Bank’s Country Director for Afghanistan. They are reproduced in appendices II and III, respectively.