UN Loses Track of Millions of Dollars

T. Christian Miller and Dafna Linzer report (h/t Mother Jones) the U.N. cannot account for tens of millions of dollars provided to Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission. According to Peter Galbraith, the former deputy chief of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, “Nobody put the brakes on. U.S. taxpayers spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a fraudulent election.” Total election costs are estimated to exceed $300 million, with the U.S. providing up to half of the total funding.

Robert Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, calls Afghanistan “one of the most difficult environments in which we work. Yet we have seen real, measurable progress.” He enumerates five lessons that have been learned. One, create a strong link between security and development. Two, “corruption can be fought better though design than though calls for virtue.” Three, locally led projects are the most effective. Four, we must build responsibility and capacity at the national level as well. Five, ordinary Afghans must see improvements in their daily lives or they will not invest in the government.

Writing for The Hindu, C.R. Gharekhan predicts that eventually “the Taliban will form part of the governing structures in Afghanistan.”