Afghanistan will need billions more in aid, as US looks to leave

International money pays for roughly 75 per cent of all of Afghanistan’s costs while government revenue covers barely a quarter of Afghan public expenditures.
The Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, which issues reports quarterly to US Congress, monitors all US spending in the 18-year war in Afghanistan, America's longest war.
The agency's latest report was sharply critical of the Afghan government’s efforts to curb corruption, saying it is one of the biggest concerns among frustrated donors.
President Ashraf Ghani’s administration “is more interested in checking off boxes for the international community than in actually uprooting its corruption problem," the report said, referring to the Afghan government's failing anti-graft drive.
Ghani's future is uncertain as final results of last year's presidential election have yet to be announced, though the preliminary results gave Ghani the win.
His main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who serves as the country’s chief executive in a fragile national unity government with Ghani, has claimed fraud.
Afghanistan ranked last in the Asia-Pacific region for corruption, a global watchdog said earlier in January.
According to Transparency International, Afghanistan's global ranking last year — at 173 of 180 countries it surveyed — was the worst since the group began ranking the country in 2005.