[Now the continued existence of the university is potentially at risk after investigators said they were unable to determine what happened to $63 million of that money, according to officials of the United States Agency for International Development and the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction.]
By Rod Nordland
 |
Students at the American
University in Afghanistan leaving the commencement
ceremony in Kabul last week. United
States government investigators say they
cannot account for $63 million in American
funding for the university.
Credit Kiana Hayeri for The New York Times
|
KABUL, Afghanistan — One of the many investigators of the
American University in Afghanistan summed things up this way: If the United
States government had paid to send every Afghan graduate to college in the
United States, it would have spent less money than it did on financing a
troubled, English-language university for them in the Afghan capital.
The
university graduated 1,281 Afghan degree students over the past decade, at a
cost of $126,000 each to American taxpayers, or a total of $162 million.
Now
the continued existence of the university is potentially at risk after
investigators said they were unable to determine what happened to $63 million
of that money, according to officials of the United States Agency for
International Development and the Special Inspector General for Afghan
Reconstruction.
The
result was an official effort last year by investigators at both agencies to
have the university disqualified from receiving any further government funding,
a process known as suspension or debarment. A compromise was reached that
temporarily prevented that step. But the university, generally known as
A.U.A.F., remains the subject of a criminal investigation as well as a forensic
audit to find out what happened to all that money.
The
university is one of the most high-profile development projects that the
American government has undertaken in Afghanistan. Reached for comment,
officials at U.S.A.I.D. praised its academic achievements.
“The
university’s primary objective is to provide an American-style education to the
youth of Afghanistan, and it has been very successful at doing so,” said Tom
Babington, an agency spokesman. “The student body is made up of impressive,
motivated individuals, and its graduates are now increasingly influential in
all areas of modern Afghan life — in both the public and private sectors.”
Mr.
Babington acknowledged that the financial and management problems uncovered by
investigators were serious ones, but he said that continued funding by the
United States government, which underwrites most of the university’s budget,
was still under discussion.
“U.S.A.I.D.
is in negotiations with A.U.A.F. for a possible extension through June 2020,”
he said.
The
agency’s contract to fund the university expires on Friday, but there is
interim funding until the end of June, Mr. Babington said.
On
March 29, the university’s board chairman, David Sedney, signed an
administrative agreement demanded by the United States government. In it, the
university pledges to undertake substantial reforms in budgeting, management
and oversight as a condition of future government funding, but admits to no
criminal wrongdoing. The Times obtained a copy of the agreement.
The
agreement, according to the U.S.A.I.D. inspector general, Ann Calvaresi Barr,
“imposes robust mechanisms to monitor and verify steps that A.U.A.F. must take
to continue to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”
The
university has had a turbulent history, with numerous management changes, and,
in August 2016, an attack by the Taliban that killed at least seven students
and six guards. A few weeks before that attack, two professors at the
university, an Australian and an American, were kidnapped by the Taliban’s
Haqqani network; both remain in captivity.
Then
last November, the university’s board chairman, an American entrepreneur named
Abul Huda Farouki, abruptly resigned, shortly before his indictment on criminal
charges connected with his company’s contract to supply food and logistics
support to the American military in Afghanistan.
The
special inspector for Afghanistan, as well as the inspector general’s office of
U.S.A.I.D., said they opened a joint criminal investigation into the university
several years ago after they were approached by a whistle-blower. But they said
they found the university’s records in such disarray that they were not able to
make a criminal case against anyone. Instead, last year, the investigators
recommended suspension or debarment of the university from receiving future
government funding.
U.S.A.I.D.
instead decided on the administrative agreement, which investigators for both
agencies said they agreed to reluctantly.
Mr.
Sedney, a former Defense Department official and former president of the university
who took over as board chairman after Mr. Farouki’s departure, played down the
investigators’ concerns.
“In
the range of administrative agreements, ours is the mildest one. It’s a
regulatory proceeding. We were not suspended, no finding of fraud, no financial
wrongdoing or requirement to pay back any money,” he said.
He
also objected to officials’ characterization that the university had “lost more
than $63 million since 2012,” as the special inspector for Afghanistan said in
its latest report to Congress.
“A.U.A.F.
has not ‘lost’ any money,” Mr. Sedney said. “A.U.A.F. is a nonprofit
organization that has spent all the money it has received from the U.S.
government.”
Mr.
Sedney also said government inspectors had failed to visit the university
campus or interview key officials, including himself. He said the
record-keeping problems were the result of the Taliban attack on the
university, which forced it to move abruptly to a new, highly fortified campus.
“We
welcome Sigar or any other organization or individual to contact the university
for a full, accurate description of what A.U.A.F. has produced through its
responsible use of all funds it has received,” he said, referring to the
special inspector general for Afghanistan.
The
special inspector general, John Sopko, said that investigators from his office
and U.S.A.I.D. had examined 28 previous investigations and audits of the
university. When they sought further information from the university about
money that was unaccounted for, he said, they encountered resistance — even to
a subpoena from his office, in one case.
“In
seven years of investigating government contractors and grant recipients in
Afghanistan, this is one of the worst-run programs I have ever seen,” Mr. Sopko
said.
When
his agency said the university had lost $63 million, he said, it meant that
record-keeping was so poor it was impossible to determine what had happened to
that money, more than a third of the U.S.A.I.D. and Defense Department grants
to the university since it was founded in 2006.
“Suspension
or debarment actions are serious. In the grant and aid world, that’s considered
to be the death penalty,” Mr. Sopko said. “We really want this university to
survive, but if it continues with this management style that everything is O.K.
and there’s nothing to worry about, it will fail.”
U.S.A.I.D.
officials also said they expected to see substantial progress.
“The
findings were not minor,” Mr. Babington said. “However, A.U.A.F. has since
instituted reforms that indicate it is on a positive trajectory to become a
responsible steward of U.S. government funds, should those reforms be
successfully tested and institutionalized.”
Ms.
Barr, the U.S.A.I.D. inspector general, said her office “will remain vigilant
in this matter. Time will tell if A.U.A.F.’s responses effectively address the
serious nature of our concerns.”
Mr.
Sopko also said his agency was continuing its criminal investigation and an
audit of how the university spent government funding.
U.S.A.I.D.
officials acknowledge that spending at the university has been high.
“Any
time you are starting up a new institution, the costs will be higher,” Mr.
Babington said. “Afghans studying at institutions in Afghanistan are also more
likely to maintain their local connections, look for local employment
opportunities, and ultimately contribute to the Afghan economy and society.
That remains our intent.”
Mr.
Sedney said the investigations of the university did not focus on its
achievements. “The university’s academic program is in the best shape it’s been
in its history,” he said. “The level of student achievement is higher than ever
before.”
Follow
Rod Nordland on Twitter: @RodNordland.
