U.S. plans to monitor Afghanistan relief projects remotely

[unhappycamper]

http://kdhnews.com/news/nation/u-s-plans-to-monitor-afghanistan-relief-projects-remotely/article_baf62894-fd8c-11e2-9e9d-0019bb30f31a.html

U.S. plans to monitor Afghanistan relief projects remotely
Posted: Monday, August 5, 2013 4:30 am
By Shashank Bengali / Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — As the U.S. military presence dwindles in Afghanistan, officials are finalizing a $200-million plan to use smartphones, GPS-enabled cameras and satellite imagery to monitor relief projects that will continue in areas deemed too remote or unsafe for Americans to visit.

The proposal underscores the rapidly diminishing American footprint in Afghanistan after nearly 12 years of war, and signals that more of the massive U.S. reconstruction effort there — long plagued by waste and weak oversight — will be monitored by Afghans, with U.S. officials forced to supervise from a distance.

Even as troops pull back, Obama administration officials said the United States must continue to finance development projects to bolster the Kabul government, whose budget remains almost entirely dependent on foreign aid.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which has poured more than $15 billion into Afghanistan since 2001, plans to spend billions more over the next decade on agriculture, energy, health, training and other programs carried out by American and Afghan contractors.