Review of Functions in Government Agencies in Afghanistan

For the past 15 years, the Afghan government, along with its international counterparts and donors, has struggled with efforts of state building and commencing the process of development and rehabilitation. Certainly, a precondition for this included the establishment of a sound administration, particularly within the civil service sector. Major challenges for government and, in particular, for the civil service in Afghanistan have been with low capacity of human resources, ambiguity in roles and functions of civil service ministries/agencies, complex service delivery and business processes. Over the past four decades, the civil service evolved through different systems ranging from Soviet copied ones to the current semi-positions based Civil Service System. This overlapping of varying administrative cultures logically led to systemic inefficiencies and problems in administrative management. One of the major challenges with regard to civil service functions and structure is ambiguity in policies and legal framework to determine government institutions’ functions and mandates. Despite the implementation of reform programmes that aimed to eliminate structural duplications across government, it is still a major challenge in the Afghan civil service.