The Interior Ministry in Kabul has 282 foreign advisers working there, according to the NATO Training Mission Afghanistan, which placed them in the ministry. Of the 282 advisers, 120 are contractors, costing $36 million a year, paid for by the U.S. government. The rest are made up of 119 U.S. military and U.S. government civilians, and 43 from other coalition countries…..
…..Several Interior Ministry officials, serving and retired, were complimentary about the work of the foreign advisers. One mid-ranking security official, who didn’t want to be named because he wasn’t authorized to speak to reporters, said that corruption would be “many times” greater if the foreigners weren’t present.
That last part of the quote up top is what I was focused on. If you read through the article below, you hear all sorts of negative comments about the services of this foreign advisory group, to include bashing the contractor element. Of course those corrupt souls in the Afghan government would bash these pesky foreign advisors that would report on their greedy activities…. To me, this advisor crew is vital to the war effort, by helping to minimize the amount of corruption in this government. Imagine if there was no adult supervision?
Also, DynCorp and MPRI were listed as some of the top contractor advisors, which is interesting. MPRI is like a retirement home for retired military officers. So it would make sense that this collection of military mind power and experience would be directed towards a very crucial part of the war. And that is getting the Afghan government on it’s feet, and trying to make it look good in the eyes of the people. A tall order if you ask me.
This also indicates to me the strategic importance of contractors. The US and NATO could have insisted on having an all federal or military group of advisors. But they do not have that capability, and they have had close to ten years to try and develop an all government force. As you can see, private industry has been able to answer the call just fine, and a majority of this group is composed of smart and very capable contractors, doing a very important job.
It is also an example of the ‘blended workforce’ concept. This advisory corps has 162 government and military advisors in it, so they too can contribute in building the Afghan government, as well as keep track of and manage the advisory corps and it’s efforts. A federal/public partnership, or blended workforce is what you call this. You see this arrangement with other areas of war zone contracting, like with the WPS program–a federal handler, overseeing a contractor security team. Hopefully this blended workforce concept does not impede the advantages of private enterprise, or decrease the strength of government oversight. It should complement both, and the end result should be something everyone can support.-Matt
Afghans rely heavily on foreign advisers as transition looms
By Saeed Shah
Nearly 300 foreign advisers, most of them Americans, work at Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry, and hundreds more work in other government departments, a reliance on foreign expertise that raises doubts about the viability of the West’s exit strategy.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai will announce later this month his plans for “transition” from heavy international involvement in Afghanistan’s governance and security to local control. But the number of civilian advisers in the ministries suggests that either Afghans lack the ability to govern themselves or that the international community is trying to run the administration itself, more than nine years after the U.S.-led invasion of the country.
There’s no clear plan to reduce that number.
Foreign advisers in the Interior Ministry, for example, appear to outnumber the senior Afghan officials they serve.
The Afghan government’s capacity to execute plans is so lacking it will spend only half of its $1.5 billion budget for economic development projects this fiscal year, according to the Ministry of Finance — despite the desperate need for investment in education, health and other basic services.