Afghanistan Committee on June 18th, 2008

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, I welcome our witnesses.

There's a clear message that came through from Mr. Brodeur, Mr. Wallace, and also from General Hillier, who was our first witness, and that is that developmental progress and security are interconnected. I think you used the term “security and aid delivery”, actually, with a sharper, stronger focus on accountability. I think we're all cognizant of the huge challenges that CIDA faces on the ground with aid delivery, but obviously that can't happen at all without security.

I'm interested particularly in accountability and corruption and how we can work with the Afghan government in that non-military role, to which CIDA is well suited, to work against that.

[Stephen Wallace]

Thank you.

Let me start. I'm just conscious of crowding my partner here.

There are some things we know we can do that are just fundamental to sound public administration. It's helping them have a budget process, making that budget process transparent, helping Parliament deal with the budget process, having a procurement system that is fair, having a procurement system that is overseen, and having a procurement system that can meet an international standard. There are direct things that deal with how you can build capacity at an individual level.

We see some interesting progress happening. Some ministries—Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education—have done very well and are starting to meet really strong standards here of accountability and transparency. But it requires a continuous focus of Afghan leadership, and also continuous support from the international community and Canada in building the technical, managerial, and leadership capacity to be able to keep this push forward.

So, one, we need to focus on fundamentals both at the national level and in Kandahar, the sub-national level. Two, as I mentioned, we have to be very careful in being able to select the areas, the programs, and the ministries and institutions where you can make progress and you can demonstrate that results can happen, and then you can show those results. It tends to have a snowball effect on how you build it. So being able to be clear about building capacity, being able to be clear about demonstrating results, being able to be clear about focusing on those things that really matter to make further progress--I think those are the basic elements of what we need to focus on regarding corruption accountability as we go forward. We can see noteworthy progress being made in some areas, but we also know that it is a long-term effort and that we're going to need to stick with it for quite some time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pierre Lemieux]

Thank you very much, Mr. Wallace.

I'm sorry, we're out of time. Colleagues, I was hoping to be able to have a second round of five minutes, but we actually have some important committee business we need to conduct. I would like to suspend the meeting.

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Can I just ask a question for one minute and ask Mr. Brodeur and Mr. Wallace to give us the answer?

[The Chair, Conservative, Pierre Lemieux]

Colleagues?

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

You said in the beginning we'd have two rounds. It's just a question. I'll just ask a question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pierre Lemieux]

Go ahead, Mr. Patry.

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Wallace. I want to thank you very much for those updates. My colleague didn't have them at the beginning. That's probably why...

Let's talk about good governance. I'm delighted to see that the Afghan people are represented within the development councils. You say over 700 community projects have been successfully completed. Is Canada the only donor country for those community projects in the province of Kandahar? Are there other partners? If so, who are they? Does Canada have a veto right with regard to those community projects? How is the funding allocated? Who controls the community project funding? Those are my questions, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pierre Lemieux]

That's three questions, Mr. Patry.

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

No, it's one question. But I'd like one minute.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pierre Lemieux]

One minute.

[Stephen Wallace]

I will be as brief as possible. Thank you for your question. In fact, this program has allowed 700 projects in more than 500 communities to be successfully completed.

Within the province of Kandahar alone, Canada is the main donor country, but it is not the only one. This is a national program funded through international contributions to a trust fund administered by the Department of Finance and the World Bank. It is called the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, a portion of which is for community programming. Canada is the main donor country for projects in Kandahar. We do not have a veto right with regard to those programs, but the community has a veto right over those projects. The community, elected officials, men and women, determine priorities. The community participates, sometimes by providing funds, but also as volunteers in order to ensure the completion of those projects. We have had a lot of success in those districts where the program has been implemented.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pierre Lemieux]

Thank you very much, Mr. Wallace, and thank you very much, Monsieur Brodeur, for your appearance in front of the committee tonight. I'm sorry about the second round of questioning, but unfortunately we do have some important committee business we'd like to wrap up, using the back end of the meeting.

Colleagues, I'll suspend the meeting for just a few moments. We'll then move in camera to conclude our committee business. Thank you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]