Photo By Lt.Cmdr. Charity Edgar | Representatives from the Ministry of Interior review financial planning documents...... read more read more
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KABUL, Afghanistan - For the first time, representatives from Afghanistan’s government, Resolute Support and the international donor community all came together to participate in a budget development process, founding the integrated Joint Coordination Council.
Both the Ministries of Interior and Defense take part in the joint committee that fulfills three important requirements. The financials determined at the iJCC determine inputs to the Afghan Budget Circular-2. This is similar to the Department of Defense submission of an agency budget to the Office of Budget and Management in the United States.
Additionally, the figures finalized at the iJCC inform the 1395 Commitment Letter due for the next solar year. This document sets conditions on funding, and is written by coalition forces and agreed to by the government of Afghanistan.
Lastly, the program objective requirement for the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund budget is satisfied through the iJCC process. The ASFF is allocated by U.S. Congress for budgeting American contributions to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
“The requirements and budget issues reviewed at the iJCC are important for creating a logical budget to share with donors,” said Afghan Colonel Sarwaruddin Ayar. “We looked at the positives and negatives for each requirement in order to make the best decisions.”
“The iJCC participants are from [the] coalition and Afghanistan, so it is a good council,” continued Ayar. “The MoI Budgetary Units can discuss their problems, and determine solutions by exchanging views and experiences with coalition partners.”
“The Afghans have their own budgetary units,” explained Air Force Col. Chris Crane, director of CJ-8, resources. “At the core, it really isn’t too different from what we do [in the United States]. They have the same issues as us; not enough money for every want and need. They too, have to prioritize and negotiate various budgetary items.”
The 24-year Air Force veteran is no stranger to the Afghan budgeting process. The Springfield, Illinois native is on his third tour with Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan. CSTC-A advises and assists the Afghans by providing essential resources in support and continued development of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
Both of Crane’s previous tours were with the International Security Assistance Force, with a mission to strengthen Afghanistan’s security in order to help the country reestablish a democratic government. In January, the mission transitioned to Resolute Support and a focus on training, advising and assisting the Afghans in eight core areas called Essential Functions.
“One of the challenges when Resolute Support created the Essential Functions was the limited programming and budgeting capabilities within the Ministries of Defense and Interior,” said Crane. “Systems needed to be put in place that strengthened accountability and transparency.”
Crane stressed that an important part of a democracy is citizens knowing where their money is going.
“We have a lot of countries who donate to the NATO Trust Fund, and we owe it to every contributing nation, including the American tax payers, to enable them to see what is going on with their investment,” said Crane.
As a joint committee, iJCC provides a platform for coalition members and donor countries to work together through a transparent process to address and adjust any issues with the Afghan budgets.
“We call this crawl, walk, run - our intent is to bring the people we mentor into our budgeting phase so they can see it, and then next year when they start their budget process, they’ll be off and running! We see this as long-term improvement to the process over the next year, and repeated for years after that,” said Crane.
Crane said that the Afghans were by no means passive observers in the iJCC sessions.
“In the beginning, there may have been some confusion, but they learned very quickly,” said Crane. “They improved the questions they were asking, engaged their counterparts and came prepared to ask the hard questions. It serves a very important role in building their budget.”
“The iJCC teaches us complete awareness of the MoI proposed budget while taking into consideration ministry polices and strategies,” said Ahmad Fraidoon Nayel, a programming and analysis subject matter expert for the MoI Afghan National Police deputy minister of strategy and policy. “The iJCC is important because all Budgetary Units know about the requested requirements and with the logical justification and according to the projected topline, they prioritize and adjust their requirements so they are supported by the donors.”
The iJCC meetings took part in June and July and set the stage for BC-2 completion. Afghan National Army and Police two star commanders will review the budget crafted from the council and forward onto the Ministers of Defense and Interior for approval. The next step for approval is the Ministry of Finance before forwarding onto President Ghani and his cabinet. Lastly, Parliament is scheduled to review and approve the budget around December.
“We have developed good operational capability - now we need to focus on institutional systems and processes to keep the machine running,” said Crane. “Budgeting plays an important role in that. Ultimately, the work done here ensures we get the necessary resources to the soldier and police in the fight.”
| Date Taken: | 08.06.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 08.06.2015 15:04 |
| Story ID: | 172373 |
| Location: | KABUL, AF |
| Hometown: | KABUL, AF |
| Hometown: | SPRINGFIELD, IL, US |
| Hometown: | WASHINGTON, DC, US |
| Web Views: | 250 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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