Afghan aid ineffective: watchdog -- Jon Hemming

KABUL (Reuters) - Billions of dollars of aid to Afghanistan have not been spent effectively and the Afghan government and international agencies must be held to account or more will be wasted, an independent watchdog said on Monday.

Of the $25 billion in aid to Afghanistan from 2001 until now, only some $15 billion has been spent, aid agencies say.

But for every $100 spent, sometimes only $20 actually reaches Afghan recipients, said the Kabul-based internationally funded Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA).

Some staff working for the USAID, the U.S. government's development agency, earn as much as $22,000 a month in Afghanistan, IWA said, or 367 times more than an Afghan teacher.