Billions of U.S. dollars that the Departments of Defense and State have poured into Afghan security forces are at risk of being wasted or stolen because the country’s government is unable to account for most of the funds.
John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, is set to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday on the threat facing $15 billion of taxpayer money that the U.S. is set to spend on the last of its rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan.
Sopko raised concerns about an “arbitrary” order he received from the State Department last week to remove 40 percent of his staff from the country within a year.
“SIGAR was told that this 40 percent cut is nonnegotiable. This arbitrary number was developed without SIGAR’s input, and embassy officials did not provide any explanation for how they determined these cuts,” Sopko said.
Congress has appropriated nearly $110 billion to reconstruction alone in Afghanistan, making it the largest such effort in U.S. history.
The bulk of that spending has gone into training and equipping the Afghan National Security Forces, with $3.8 billion of the $60.7 billion total paying the salaries of security personnel from its two branches.
SIGAR is among a number of federal watchdogs — including the Government Accountability Office and the inspectors general at State and Defense — that have pointed out profound shortcomings in the way Afghan officials manage their security forces.
One of the biggest problems stem from uncertainty at every level of how many troops the Afghan security force actually employs. Roughly one in five Afghan police officers are paid in cash by senior officials, allowing the middlemen to pocket unknown cuts of their salaries off the books, the U.S. has little idea if or how many personnel are being paid with taxpayer dollars.
A January report from the United Nations discovered the Afghan Ministry of Interior’s inspector general had suppressed allegations of corruption within the country’s national police force.
Sopko raised concerns that the dramatic draw-down of U.S. staff, particularly those who conduct oversight, on the ground in Afghanistan could expose funding to fraud, waste and the Afghan government’s own inability to keep track of finances.
“While the troops may be coming home, the checks are still going over there,” he said.
SIGAR’s staff in the country will be reduced from 42 positions to just 25 as part of an attempt to “normalize” the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.
Sopko’s testimony comes days after SIGAR released findings that showed $488 million in taxpayer-supported efforts to boost Afghanistan’s mining industry were at risk of being wasted because the U.S. agencies involved had made little effort to ensure their spending didn’t overlap.
Senior staff from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Departments of State and Defense admitted any attempt to coordinate their efforts in the mining sector had “all but fallen apart” by the time the Pentagon wrapped up its programs in December 2014.
For example, one official with the U.S. Embassy in Kabul told the watchdog the State Department was unaware of a $39.6 million Defense project in the area until Afghan government officials personally thanked the ambassador for American support.
Afghanistan’s vast mineral deposits have been valued at $900 billion.
The Pentagon implemented $282 million worth of mining support before ceasing all operations completely in March of this year.
USAID has also poured money into developing the country’s minerals, oil and natural gas for commercial use, spending $206 million through three programs since 2011.
SIGAR discovered the Pentagon forged ahead with no strategy, written guidance, documentation or oversight of the Afghan mining programs that quickly drained millions from its reconstruction budget.
USAID, on the other hand, took a more careful approach to its development efforts and selected projects carefully, the report said.
Still, its mineral and hydrocarbon development programs were put in place with no regard for whether the Afghan government could keep them running after the agency left the country.
“No U.S. agency that will remain in Afghanistan has any plans to provide continued monitoring, evaluation or support” for taxpayer-funded mining initiatives, the report noted.
Sopko expressed concerns that the dwindling number of American personnel in Afghanistan would allow the continued reconstruction funding, particularly the billions dedicated to the country’s security force, to go to waste.
