SIGAR Reports Continue to Embarrass U.S. Military, Embassy, and USAID in Afghanistan

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has continued to publish reports that highlight abuse, fraud, and mismanagement of aid, development, and military assistance programs in Afghanistan. Over the past few years the reports have been a source of embarrassment as its authors have poked into the internal auditing and oversight practices of the military and U.S. government organizations operating in Afghanistan. It seems every month there is another SIGAR report that portrays the wasteful expenditure of funds in Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, from this authors experience, the reports ring true and only scratch the surface. The U.S. Embassy should spend more time monitoring how its money is spent. Perhaps the embassy needs more accountants in Kabul to see where the money was supposed to go and also some accountants in Dubai to find which bank accounts the money is in! Read more about the embassy's lame attempts to avoid the public eye of SIGAR and to try and minimize the accuracy of the SIGAR reports in "U.S. Embassy in Kabul defends itself against blistering fraud reports", Los Angeles Times, December 23, 2013.

C-27A Controversy. For instance, an upcoming report on the grounded C-27A transport planes that have been sitting on the Kabul airport ramp that the U.S. bought for the Afghan Air Force will be very interesting. This story is an example of the never-ending waste that takes place in Afghanistan. It will be interesting to see how ISAF plays this one; I pity the ISAF Public Affairs Officers (PAOs) because there is no good news coming out of this report.