A government watchdog found long construction delays, deteriorating security conditions and even the weather pushed the cost of a taxpayer-funded military facility for the Afghan Ministry of Defense in Kabul three times higher than the Pentagon planned.
The costly building, which still had unresolved construction flaws five years after the start of the project, was just the latest example of wasteful government spending in Afghanistan uncovered by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
Although construction on the building was “largely complete” by April of last year, Afghan officials still had not begun using the mostly-empty headquarters, SIGAR found in a report made public Thursday.
The facility was initially slated to cost taxpayers $48.7 million, but the cost ballooned to $154.7 million through five years of construction delays.
What’s more, the Ministry of Defense headquarters was plagued by design flaws, including structural deficiencies that left the building vulnerable to the frequent earthquakes that rattle the region.
“The roof was not designed or constructed in accordance with the contract,” the report found.
Since SIGAR’s inception in 2008, the watchdog has saved taxpayers more than $2 billion.
