USAID OIG Afghanistan and Pakistan Oversight Report, April-June ...

The audit found that the program had made progress in capacity building in selected Afghan ministries,identified defective USAID-built structures, and provided engineering oversight for mission constructionprojects.In support of its first goal, the program provided the Afghan Government with additional capacity. Technicalconsultants hired under the program assisted Ministry of Mines personnel in preparing a proposal for therehabilitation of gas fields to generate electrical power for the country. Meanwhile, at the Ministry of PublicWorks, program advisers initiated the development of a pilot program to teach ministry staff how toimplement and monitor road construction projects and provide them with a more efficient means ofmanaging and maintaining roads in the future. At the Ministry of Energy and Water, the program contractorprovided a transboundary water-rights adviser to help the ministry develop water policies for negotiationswith neighbors in other countries.With regard to the second goal—evaluating and identifying USAID-built structures that did not meet seismicstandards—the program was successful in establishing a process for identifying structures that were notearthquake resistant. The mission had a database of 1,474 USAID-built structures, but the database was notcomplete. As of October 2009, the program had completed preliminary assessments of 468 of thesestructures and detailed structural seismic evaluations of 35. At that point, the program had found 15structures to be unsafe for occupancy.With regard to the third goal, of providing quality assurance and engineering oversight on USAIDconstruction projects, the program had succeeded in providing these services for projects initiated by themission’s Office of Infrastructure, Engineering and Energy. However, the mission had not been so successfulin providing quality-assurance services for construction projects initiated by other program offices in themission.Despite the program’s progress in addressing its three main goals, it had serious issues to address. The mostcritical issue was to identify the many defective structures remaining among the estimated 1,474 missionbuiltstructures. The total number of defective structures was to be determined with the completion of theremaining preliminary assessments and any subsequent detailed seismic evaluations. The missionanticipated that the contractor would complete 200 seismic evaluations by the end of the contract. Inaddition, significant defects in five buildings reported in a prior Office of Inspector General audit report(“Audit of USAID/Afghanistan’s Accelerating Sustainable Agriculture Program,” Report No. 5-306-08-009-P,August 8, 2008) had yet to be corrected.Unless defective structures are identified and repaired or rebuilt, a catastrophic earthquake could destroythem and cause many injuries and deaths.Audit of USAID/Afghanistan’s Building Education Support Systems for Teachers Project (Report No. 5-306-10-006-P, January 29, 2010)Almost 4 years into a $94 million, 5-year contract with Creative Associates International Inc. to implementUSAID’s Building Education Support Systems for Teachers project, OIG’s audit concluded that the projectwas making progress in helping to improve the quality of education in Afghanistan but had not achieved itstwo main goals: improving teaching through teacher training, and institutionalizing ministry structures andsystems that support high-quality teaching.USAID OIG Afghanistan and Pakistan Oversight Report 83