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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Afghan Corruption - Military Fuel is Missing




Corruption  -   There is no proof that American taxpayer funded fuel ever reached the Afghan Army 
  • Your tax dollars at work.


The watchdog for U.S. spending in Afghanistan says lax accountability in a $1.1 billion program supplying fuel to the Afghan National Army needs “immediate attention” before control of the program is turned over to the Kabul government in less than four months.

The Washington Times reports there’s no proof the fuel is actually being used by Afghan security forces for their missions, meaning it’s not known how much fuel has been lost, stolen or diverted to the insurgency, according to a report released Monday by John F. Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.


Rampant corruption in Afghanistan




The report is the latest bad news surrounding a key element of the U.S. exit strategy for Afghanistan.

Washington has spent billions of dollars on the international coalition’s effort to train and equip Afghan forces it hopes eventually will be able to fight the Taliban on their own.

The report also found:

  • An audit of the spending is being hampered because someone shredded financial records covering $475 million in fuel payments over more than four years and officials inexplicably couldn’t provide complete records for a fifth year.
  • There is insufficient justification for the ever-ballooning budget requests for fuel that have been made by the command managing NATO’s mission to equip and train Afghan forces.
  • Millions of dollars in the proposed funding should be cut until international forces figure out how many vehicles and generators the Afghan security forces are actually using and how much fuel is needed for those vehicles and for power plants.

The funding request for the program was $306 million this year, and commanders have said they need $466 million for fiscal 2013 and $555 million for fiscal 2014 and beyond. Sopko urged capping the budget at $306 million until there is better justification for additional money.
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(Washington Times)
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See our article:  THE FEDERALIST - "Only one-third of Afghan police officers exist."




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