The US paid just $1.8 billion on the ground in Pakistan under the Kerry Lugar Berman (KLB) law and the remaining $3.2 billion went back to Washington DC at source through foreign consultants and other means.
Talking about the disbursements, the former US diplomat Robin Raphel said, “The disbursement data was released in complex manner on different website that became impossible to bring together disbursement amounts from USA.”
During a webinar organized by PIDE titled foreign aid she predicted that the aid money would be decreased possibly in future but less amounts with effective implementation could deliver goods at gross roots level.
The US Congress had authorized the administration to utilize $7.5 billion under KLB law for five years period in 2009-10, she added.
She said that hopes were high in Pakistan so people were disappointed with the money for the aid. The potential for absorption was too weak and, she maintained, they could not finalize their own goals. She said, she had brought a lot of problems together. She said that the USAID workers carrying out construction projects was smaller and that contractors had turned into big company with a lot of control.
Aid expert Husain Nadim said the military side had strong absorption potential as 85 percent of help was used effectively for military purposes but civilian side was unable to ensure efficient use of funds. He said that the problems of Pakistan’s growth could not be solved without reforms of the civil service and governance.
