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

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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
Afghanistan has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world. More than 11 million Afghans over the age of15 cannot read or write. In rural areas, where three-fourths of all Afghans live, 90 percent of the women andover 60 percent of the men are illiterate. Under the Taliban, girls were not allowed to go to school, fewerthan 900,000 boys were enrolled, and many received religious education in lieu of academics. Theimplications of this lack of education can be felt in all domains of life. Afghans have little access toinformation about good health practices, and most of the country’s judges and civil servants do not havemore than a high school diploma. Today more than 5.7 million students attend school. However, the AfghanGovernment is striving to improve education for its people, and the Ministry of Education worked withUSAID and other donors to implement a 5-year National Education Strategic Plan (2006–2010).The audit found that much of the training of teachers had been completed. For example, 50,600 of the targetof 54,000 teachers in the 11 provinces had received in-service training for teachers already working for theMinistry of Education. Although the project had not attempted to measure the extent to which teaching hadactually been improved, teachers we spoke with expressed satisfaction with the training they hadreceived. And much of the technical assistance to the Ministry of Education had been completed. Forexample, Creative Associates had assisted in recruiting and selecting most of the 444 candidates who wereexpected to help the Ministry of Education develop its capacity to improve the quality of teaching.In addition, the audit found that district teacher training teams had been established to help conducttraining in all 11 provinces. This approach used a cascading process of training existing teachers asinstructors who in turn would train other teachers. The project teamed with subcontractors to select andhire 181 team leaders, 1,361 team members, and 8 provincial project monitoring officers, all by December2007. Moreover, the project developed (1) an action plan for the Ministry of Education’s 5-year strategicplan, (2) a human resources policy manual, (3) a training curriculum for management skills, and (4) anaction plan for the integration of the Human Resources Department and the Reform Implementation andManagement Unit at the Ministry of Education.Notwithstanding these accomplishments, the audit found that some significant tasks and activities includedin the project’s contract and work plan had not been completed. For example, the project had not completedthe curriculum development and related in-service teacher training or the accelerated program for teacherswho did not meet Ministry of Education teaching qualifications for their specific subject/grade level, asplanned under component 1 of the project. The project also did not complete some activities planned undercomponent 2—for example, technical assistance intended for the Ministry of Education’s Human ResourcesDepartment, such as development of a curriculum and staff training on a human resource database; creationof a training manual for the payroll database for budget staff; and preparation of at least one workshop onpedagogical methods for faculty at each provincial teacher training college. The contractor hoped tocomplete these efforts by the contract’s end.Audit of USAID/Afghanistan’s Civilian Assistance Program (Report No. 5-306-10-004-P, December 15,2009)The Civilian Assistance Program is being implemented through a $27 million, 3-year cooperative agreement(April 2007 to April 2010) with the International Organization for Migration. OIG’s audit found that theprogram—which is intended to provide help to Afghan families and communities that have suffered lossesbecause of military operations—was not on target to assist eligible program beneficiaries.84 USAID OIG Afghanistan and Pakistan Oversight Report
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Audit ProgramOIG auditors, certifie
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site visits. In the past, building
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Financial Audit of Costs Incurred b
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investigation. While the employee h
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eceived payments. OIG’s review of
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program is improving the capacity o
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Under Cooperative Agreement No. 391
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Financial Audit of USAID Funds Mana
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OIG Investigation Results in Employ
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Other ExclusionsWalker, Scott Antho
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Page 61 and 62: 10/10/11 F-306-12-002-N Financial A
Page 63 and 64: 02/25/10 5-306-10-002-NFinancial Au
Page 65 and 66: 08/10/06 5-306-06-004-D Financial A
Page 67 and 68: 03/26/04 5-306-04-003-N Financial A
Page 69 and 70: 06/23/11 G-391-11-003-Q Quality Con
Page 71 and 72: 04/30/09 5-391-09-008-R Financial A
Page 73 and 74: 09/26/06 5-391-06-003-Q Quality Con
Page 75 and 76: The project had many successes, inc
Page 77 and 78: complicated process, and OIG could
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Page 81 and 82: According to information provided b
Page 83 and 84: OIG’s audit found that the univer
Page 85 and 86: Audit of USAID/Afghanistan's Altern
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Page 91 and 92: contractor estimated that cost over
Page 93 and 94: Audit of USAID/Pakistan’s Energy
Page 95 and 96: Audit of USAID/Pakistan’s Road Re
Page 97 and 98: establishing a distribution policy,
Page 99 and 100: planned results was hindered by a s
Page 101 and 102: Although USAID carried out numerous
Page 103 and 104: AbbreviationsAACCAEDATVIAUAfCERPDAB
Page 106: USAID Office of Inspector General13
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