Direct Assistance: USAID Has Taken Positive Action to Assess Afghan Ministries’ Ability to Manage Donor Funds, but Concerns Remain, January 2014. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction SIGAR 14-32 Audit Report.

“USAID determined it could not rely on the ministries it assessed to manage donor funds without a host of mitigation measures in place and that, under normal circumstances, the results of the assessments would lead USAID not to engage in direct assistance with the ministries. However, USAID proceeded to sign direct assistance agreements with seven ministries, only requiring them to implement less than eight percent of identified risk mitigation measures prior to receiving funds. While we are aware that USAID has additional external measures intended to mitigate the risks associated with providing direct assistance funds to these ministries, these measures do not directly address all of the very serious problems within the ministries and could well be exploited or circumvented, given the high risk of corruption revealed through USAID’s assessments.”