Afghan cabinet ill-prepared to govern post US troops withdrawal: US assessment

Afghanistan is not prepared to govern on its own, confidential U.S. assessments have revealed.

The assessments, which the State Department tried to hide from the public, show nearly all Afghan Cabinet ministries are woefully ill-prepared to govern after the U.S. withdraws its troops.

The assessment revealed that there were gaps in knowledge, capability and safeguards were 'critical' and infrastructure was in danger of collapsing if left to its own accord.

The State Department USAID reports, obtained by The Washington Times under a Freedom of Information Act request filed with the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, suggest that the U.S. spending has yet to create a sustainable civilian government in Afghanistan.

However, questions remain why the secret assessments, which were conducted by USAID officials in 2012 and 2013 and are known in foreign aid circles as 'Stage II Risk Assessment Reports', are just coming to light.

The documents focus specifically on seven Afghan government ministries overseeing the nation's finance, mining, electric utilities, communications, education, health and agriculture.

USAID concluded outright that six of those ministries simply cannot be trusted to manage aid from U.S. taxpayers. It added that the there was a risk that the money will fall victim to fraud, waste, abuse or outright theft.