Afghanistan worked hard to drive all four features of CoST’s approach during its membership.

High levels of financial waste are frequently observed on public construction projects in post-conflict states, which can suffer from corruption and inadequate monitoring mechanisms.

Afghanistan’s road construction, in particular, was a central absorber of aid money. Due to the lack of monitoring mechanisms in Afghanistan, high levels of financial waste have been documented in public construction projects. For instance, the cost of upgrading Kabul’s symbolic airport road, Bibi Mahro, was estimated to be ten times that of other road projects in the country.

In 2012, the government made a series of commitments to fight corruption and improve governance at the Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan. These commitments form the backdrop to various efforts aimed at improving transparency in the country, including the country’s participation in CoST. The Government of Afghanistan initiated legislative reforms to combat corruption, including the enactment of the Afghan Access to Information Law in 2014 and the reform of procurement legislation in 2015.

Afghanistan joined CoST in 2013, following recommendations made by the Afghanistan Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee on the need for greater transparency in the infrastructure sector, as well as an Executive Decree passed by President Hamid Karzai in 2012, which focused on combating corruption.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the CoST International Secretariat and the Ministry of Economy, and since then, the Ministry has championed infrastructure transparency in government. The Secretariat of CoST Afghanistan started its activity in 2016 and was hosted by Integrity Watch Afghanistan.

CoST Afghanistan produced a scoping study in 2017, which identified challenges on both the supply and demand sides of information and accountability. Regarding the latter, an estimated illiteracy rate of 70 percent and a predominantly rural population limit the capacity of the media, civil society, and citizens to utilise information to hold the government accountable. On the supply side, the continuing flow of off-budget funds from international donors into Afghanistan presented opportunities for funds to be misappropriated. Donors followed their own data publication policies, meaning that the use of funds is often not known and escapes scrutiny. Furthermore, the security situation created not only operational risks but also risks associated with data publication. To address this, since 2017, CoST Afghanistan has conducted a series of capacity-building programs for government entities, the private sector, civil society, and the media. All the events promoted a culture of transparency, utilising data and information to enhance accountability and citizen-based monitoring of infrastructure projects.

Online data publication (disclosure) platforms

The data publication process ensures that data about the purpose, scope, costs, and execution of infrastructure projects is open and accessible to the public and data is published in a timely manner.

Four online platforms were created by the following bodies with the support of CoST Afghanistan (Figures last updated July 2021)

• The Afghanistan Government Electronic Open and Procurement System (AGEOPS) has published information on 5610 projects
• The Ministry of Public Works(MoPW), which published  information on 731 projects
• Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW), which published information on 402 major projects
• Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), which published information on 1766 projects

Between June 2020 and June 2021, the number of projects published on these portals increased from 6386 to 8509. CoST Afghanistan advocated for the AGEOPS system to be used as the government’s primary portal to prevent duplication of efforts.

CoST Afghanistan launched its first assurance report in 2018 at a high-level event attended by H.E. Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive of the Government of Afghanistan, alongside representatives from the Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, international partners, academia, the private sector, and civil society.

The assurance report included independent reviews of eight infrastructure projects with a budget of approximately USD $150 million, covering sectors such as public works, rural rehabilitation, energy, and water. The report showed that on average, procuring entities had proactively published 27% of the data from CoST IDS, a relatively low number. In addition, significant cost and time overruns were recorded, with an average cost overrun of 18% and an average time overrun of approximately 119%. Construction quality in the selected projects was also a matter of concern.

CoST Afghanistan’s third assurance report was launched in July 2021. The report shows that since the second assurance process in 2019, the proactive publication of data decreased by 3.8% to 32%, while responses to information requests increased by 9% to 66%. A key finding from the third report was the lack of distinction between the concepts of a project and a contract in the Afghan procurement system, as project-level data points were not collected and published. This report helped to identify gaps in infrastructure data published in Afghanistan and how these limitations hindered opportunities for transparency.

CoST Afghanistan partnered with the Afghanistan Builders’ Association (ABA) throughout 2020 to help members of the construction industry utilise opportunities to participate in the procurement process. Initially planned as face-to-face meetings, the sessions were adapted to a webinar format in response to COVID-19 restrictions. A significant takeaway was the importance of dialogue between the public and private sectors. This is something that private sector participants cited as key to increasing trust and, therefore, participation in public procurement. In addition to providing opportunities for dialogue between government ministers and private sector representatives, CoST Afghanistan facilitated the ABA’s five-year strategy to promote greater coordination among construction companies as they bid for public tenders.

CoST Afghanistan conducted several public awareness sessions for universities in Afghanistan in 2019, focusing on the theme of social accountability, which took place in both the capital and provinces. These sessions attracted hundreds of students eager to learn more about project monitoring, and as a result, platforms were created for citizens to share concerns regarding infrastructure projects.

CoST Afghanistan engaged stakeholders via the following activities:

• Weekly media monitoring, which is shared with stakeholders
• Sharing progress and updates with the public via social media channels
• Producing a quarterly newsletter
• Hosting private sector committees

CoST Afghanistan became an inactive member in 2021, and its membership was officially withdrawn by the CoST Board a year later, in accordance with the applicable policies.