US State Department: Afghanistan fails to meet minimum fiscal transparency standards

The U.S. Department of State says Afghanistan’s ministries and other public-sector institutions failed to meet any of the minimum requirements for fiscal transparency during the review period.

In its 2026 Fiscal Transparency Report, released Tuesday, the State Department said no Afghan entity had published an executive budget proposal or an end-of-year report within a reasonable timeframe.

The report said that in the absence of a publicly available budget, there was no confirmation of government expenditures made to support public services. It also said Afghan institutions had not published timely information on public-sector debt obligations.

According to the report, publicly available revenue and expenditure figures did not correspond to actual revenues and expenditures, based on information gathered through contacts and the government’s inability to service public-sector debts.

However, some state-owned enterprises independently published information on their revenues and expenditures.

The State Department also said an entity calling itself the Supreme Audit Office, which announced that it would begin operating in 2022, had not clarified the legal basis for its activities and did not publish any audits or audit findings during the review period.

The report further noted that the IEA did not make public the budgets of their “military” and intelligence services.

The U.S. State Department recommended that Afghan ministries and public institutions improve fiscal transparency by publishing reliable budget documents on time, following internationally accepted budgeting principles, strengthening oversight of off-budget accounts, and making information on public-sector debt publicly available.

It also called for clearer laws governing natural-resource extraction and public procurement, as well as ensuring that any supreme audit institution operates independently and meets international standards.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate’s spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said Afghanistan’s budget does not belong to any other country, and therefore there is no obligation to provide information to others about how it is spent.