Pakistan to get billions from U.S. despite oversight concerns | USA Today

Flikr photo by skasuga used under a Creative Commons license.  The Obama administration has proposed tripling civilian assistance to Pakistan in order to isolate militancy and strengthen the quality of governance through infrastructure rehabilitation, and investments in education and healthcare.  But in order for this strategy to work, there needs to be greater control and transparency over where the money goes and how it gets spent. 

Karin von Hippel, a Pakistan expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U.S. must ponder, "How do we make sure that that money gets spent properly and doesn't get stolen?"

The track record is not good:

The only two audits of U.S. development aid to Pakistan in recent years, by the U.S. Agency for International Development's inspector general, found significant problems. Record-keeping in an $83 million education reform program was so inadequate that auditors could not say whether any good was achieved. An effort to rebuild schools and health clinics in an area devastated by a 2005 earthquake was found to be years behind schedule.

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