In 2007, Afghanistan became the 31st country to qualify for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. This followed a series of reforms aimed at improving public debt management, including the establishment of a Debt and Asset Management Unit (DAMU) in the finance ministry and a deal to cancel some of its debts to other countries the previous year.
"As a new user, I believe this system will assist us to have sustainable debt management for the Government of Afghanistan" (Head of the Debt and Asset Management Unit, Afghanistan)
In early 2009, we implemented a project with the finance ministry to improve data recording and reporting. This is a priority for the Government, as it will facilitate reporting to international organisations, paving the way for further debt relief under the HIPC initiative and enabling more active management of costs and risks.
It is a small team in DAMU but they have put in place procedures for data recording and well-maintained electronic and manual debt records. The project focused on consolidating all of these records into one database using the Commonwealth Secretariat's Debt Recording Management system (CS-DRMS), enhancing data recording procedures and improving reporting capabilities. Initially, CS-DRMS will be used for recording and managing external debt but will eventually include domestic debt and on-lending agreements.
Our activities included:
- Installing CS-DRMS in the Ministry of Finance and training IT staff in software administration and maintenance
- Recording, validating and auditing all loans that have been maintained until the end of 2008
- Assessing training needs and delivering training, including a staff coaching programme, in using CS-DRMS for managing government debt
- Design of customised reports for the Ministry of Finance and central bank, eliminating the need for Excel-based reporting
- Development of standard operating procedures to assist in day-to-day debt management operations
Working in Afghanistan has brought some interesting challenges. Not all loan records were complete, especially for loans contracted under previous governments. Our team also came up with a solution to enable reporting from CS-DRMS according to two different calendars. Reporting to the international community is done using the Gregorian calendar that most of us are familiar with whilst reporting to the Government is done according to the Persian Solar calendar. In the Gregorian equivalent, the Solar year 1387 runs until 21 March 2009.