While acknowledging several problems in its tsunami recovery program for Indonesia and Sri Lanka, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said these shortcomings were primarily caused by the unprecedented magnitude of the disaster.

"First of all, the tsunami was an exceptional disaster which has never been faced before. Many things were unexpected," USAID Deputy Director for Indonesia Robert Cunnane was quoted Friday by English daily The Jakarta Post as saying.

He was commenting on a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the auditing arm of Congress, which said the U.S. aid agency's lack of preparedness in its tsunami recovery programs for Indonesia and Sri Lanka resulted in cost overruns and bureaucratic delays in completing reconstruction projects.

Cunnane contended that given the difficulties they faced in the field, the relief operations had gone well.

He argued that the report, issued in Washington on Wednesday, " only focused on several negative sides while we and others have done a lot of positive things".

The report claimed many of the problems resulted from the USAID 's failure to implement lessons in reconstruction from previous major disaster recovery efforts.

The U.S. Congress appropriated 908 million U.S. dollars in May 2005 to help nations affected by the Dec. 26, 2004 earthquake off Indonesia and the Indian Ocean tsunami it triggered. USAID was allocated 482 million dollars of the money for reconstruction projects in several countries, particularly Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

The GAO also faulted USAID for its handling of its signature project in Indonesia, a planned 240-kilometer road through Aceh province, the region hardest hit by the earthquake and tsunami.

The U.S.-funded road had to be reduced in length to 145 kilometers and linked to a 95-kilometer road built by the Japanese government,

In response to these criticisms, Cunnane acknowledged that unexpected problems were encountered in acquiring land because land owners lost documents in the disaster.

"Given the difficult situation, we are only five to six months behind schedule," he said.

Source: Xinhua