UNDP Can't Find $200 Million for LOTFA

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is responsible for administering the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA). A recent investigation by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) finds that there is $200 million that was taken from the LOFTA fund by the Ministry of Interior that is unaccounted for. SIGAR has sent a letter to Helen Clark (admistrator of the UNDP) asking for clarification. The UNDP has had a troubled past in administering and providing oversight on the billions of dollars given by member nations to LOFTA; and it seems that poor performance is continuing . . . as well as Afghan corruption. The Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan is used to support police remunerations, police infrastructure, and police capacity development. The money is provided by the international community - funneled through the UNDP into the LOFTA fund - and then given to the Afghans for "national execution". That means we give the money to the Afghans so they can develop their programs, budgets and execution plans. Sure . . . that sounds good . . . it helps develop "institutional capacity" and "organizational capability". But there is a "BIG BUT"; there should be some rigorous oversight to ensure the Afghan crooks don't run off with the money. And that is something that the United Nations, the international community at large, and ISAF have failed at miserably through the years. There is a horrendous lack of oversight to ensure that crooks (like Karzai) don't run off to Dubai with suitcases filled with greenbacks. Read more in this story in "UN agency blamed after hundreds of millions diverted from Afghan fund", Fox News, October 16, 2014.