U.S. officials have suspended the audit team's contract to advise the Bank of Afghanistan that they not reveal early signs of widespread corruption in the country's largest private bank before its revelation last autumn triggered destabilizing crisis. The Inspector General probe commissioned by the head of the Kabul of the u.s. Agency for international development, which paid the consultants, implies that the consultants employed by the accounting firm Deloitte could have alerted u.s. officials about a pattern of fraudulent loans, the Bank of Kabul before the scandal and cronyism.
The crisis prompted a run on the Bank last September exposed the underworld of this sector was acclaimed as one of the few success stories for the u.s. Mission in Afghanistan. It also has jeopardized billions of dollars in the biggest Afghanistan from want to be assured that corrupt officials will steal their money. The investigation provides the first indication that American officials can take steps to reduce the fallout of the banking crisis.
A senior u.s. official familiar with the initial findings of the investigation, which was not public, called it "him cursing" for the staff of Deloitte accountants assigned to advise the Central Bank executives of Afghanistan. A Government-owned bank regulates all private banks and setting monetary policy. Event highlights dilemma facing hundreds of paid u.s. consultant working for the Government of Afghanistan: no clear rules dictating what information they need to inform the u.s. Government.
"Some of the guys see Deloitte Awards corruption, cheating but don't tell" USAID, said the senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue politically. The official said the report concluded that the Deloitte accountants need to know about the problems at the Bank of Kabul. Jonathan Gandal, Deloitte spokesman, did not say whether the firm experts saw early signs of a crisis, and if so, who they reported them.
"We would not be who is visiting Kabul Bank," he said in the statement. "Our services have included supervising or managing Bank Bank exams Kabul Kabul Bank before put in conservatorship in September 2010". "We've ended this part of the Deloitte contract, we intend to make sure that all of our technical assistance is as effective as possible," she said.
New review commissioned
Facing the increasing desire on the part of international donors, the Government of Afghanistan has agreed to sweeping investigative auditing Commission for a State Bank in Kabul, the second-largest bank. U.s. officials in Afghanistan fear that thorough testing can uncover if that much larger number of politically connected Afghans have received loans that they used risky investments.