One cable obtained from WikiLeaks highlights irritation between Berlin and Washington over a 15-percent "administrative fee" the US sought to charge Germany on a 50 million euro donations made to a trust fund whose purpose is to improve the Afghan army. A top German diplomat complained the fee would be a tough sell to taxpayers.

In the glossy brochure "The Bundeswehr in Afghanistan," everything seems blissfully positive. One section, under the heading, "the current state of our engagement," mentions a massive donation that Germany made to Afghanistan. In 2009, the German government transferred €50 million ($66.14 million) to the Afghan Army National Trust Fund. The money from Germany was intended to "improve the operational capabilities and development of the ANA (Afghan National Army)," according to the publicity materials from the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces. The money, the message seems to be, is well spent. After all, once the NATO ISAF troops withdraw from Afghanistan, the Afghan army is expected to take responsibility for the country's security.

But little has happened with the German donation in the months since it was made -- at least nothing that Germany had hoped would as a result of its multimillion euro gift. There was also considerable anger over the fact that the Americans had been trying to claim some of the money for themselves.
That was apparent in a sharply worded demarche from Germany's then-ambassador to NATO in Brussels, Ulrich Brandenburg, to his American counterpart, Ivo Daalder. The US NATO Ambassador forwarded the German "non-paper," dated Feb. 3, on the very same day to the US State Department with a "request for guidance." Brandenburg complained that the German donation had not yet been disbursed to the desired projects.

The German money was to be used "exclusively" for projects stipulated by Berlin, according to Brandenburg's demarche, including one project in Kabul (€2 million), one in Feyzabad (€1 million) and an additional one in Mazar-i-Sharif (€4 million). "As of today," he wrote, "no project financing has occurred."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,732589,00.html