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The Biden administration committed $3.5 billion to the fund, but no disbursements were made and safeguards were missing.
Taliban fighters in Kabul, Afghanistan, 2021 (Getty Images)
More than a year after its creation, the U.S.-backed Afghanistan National Assistance Fund has not made a single disbursement and lacks safeguards to prevent $3.5 billion in investments from being stolen by the Taliban government, according to a government watchdog. It is said that they are doing so.
The Afghanistan Fund was established more than a year ago by order of the Biden administration, which authorized the transfer of more than $3.5 billion in funds held by Afghanistan’s central bank to a charitable account to support the war-torn country’s ailing population. .
Since then, “the fund has made no expenditures on activities aimed at benefiting the Afghan people” and currently has “special controls in place to ensure that funds are not diverted to or misused by the Taliban.” The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which oversees U.S. aid to the country, said in an earlier report.
The uncertainty surrounding the fund adds to the challenges facing the Biden administration as it seeks to stem Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis, which has escalated following the failed 2021 withdrawal that brought the Taliban back to power. It’s highlighted. By taking control of the country’s governing institutions, the terrorist group was able to steal aid from the West and force U.S.-funded humanitarian workers to pay for their expenses.
According to SIGAR, the funds from the Afghanistan Fund have not yet been spent. That’s because the fund failed to develop a set of safeguards to prevent funding to the Taliban.
“Despite previous claims that the fund already has ‘robust safeguards’ in place. [the] Ministry of Finance [Department] A compliance program to block funding to sanctioned individuals and criminals, including Taliban members, is “under development,” federal investigators said.
The funds also cannot be returned to the Central Bank of Afghanistan, SIGAR revealed, as at least three members of the current board are “long-time senior Taliban leaders.” “at present, [the central bank] It is not independent of the Taliban, and three of its leaders are senior leaders of the Taliban, which is under sanctions by the United States and United Nations. ”
The watchdog group also found that one of the U.S.-appointed Afghanistan Fund directors is a member of the central bank’s governing body, creating a potential conflict of interest.
“It is not clear whether this constitutes a conflict of interest in the form of a conflict of fiduciary duties,” SIGAR reported. “It is also unclear who will decide whether a conflict of interest exists or how it is defined.”
Additionally, the State Department stated that “one of the individuals selected by the State Department as a trustee… [the central bank’s] The wealthy man was fired from his previous job for lying about his credentials, raising questions about the appropriateness of the country’s vetting process. ”
The State Department also did not provide details to SIGAR about how it vetted the individuals selected to transfer central bank assets to the Afghanistan Fund.
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