The U.S. Treasury Department plans to send more advisors to Afghanistan in the months ahead, a top official said Wednesday, part of the Obama administration’s effort to bolster the war-torn country’s financial management system.
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| Men trade currency in a Kabul money market. (Getty Images) |
In remarks prepared for delivery at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal S. Wolin said Treasury advisors have helped Afghanistan restructure its debt, streamline its budget process, improve its payment system for government employees and create a new Debt Management Unit.
“The U.S. Treasury has made building and reforming the system of public financial management in Afghanistan a priority,” Wolin said. “There is much work still to do, but — again — there has been progress,” he added, pointing to a revenue action plan designed to limit corruption and new powers to audit Ministry of Finance expenditures.
Wolin also said Treasury is taking steps to help Afghanistan’s central bank, which was one of several targets in a recent Taliban attack. He said the department’s technical adviser at the central bank’s financial intelligence unit has helped establish systems to track financial transactions. Another advisor will arrive in the country in the coming days to help the central bank regulate the financial sector, Wolin said.