Murray Hunter
US Auditor Report on Afghanistan indicates massive USD 239M financial misallocations
Are the Taliban the beneficiaries?
Aug 28, 2024
An audit report just released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found that 2 out of 5 state bureaus running projects in Afghanistan could not demonstration compliance with state partner vetting procedures. In the SIGAR 24-31 Audit Report stated that “Two bureaus, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), provided some documentation but not enough to determine whether all their Afghanistan programs complied with State’s vetting guidance.”
The SIGAR report further stated that “DRL and INL could not demonstrate that they complied with State’s partner vetting requirements for many of their programs in Afghanistan. Specifically, DRL could only provide supporting vetting documentation for three of its seven awards, while the partner vetting documentation for four of its awards were missing from its contracting files. As a result, SIGAR could not determine whether DRL complied with State’s partner vetting requirements for four of its awards. Similarly, INL could only provide SIGAR with supporting vetting documentation for 3 of its 22 awards because supporting documentation for 19 of its awards was missing from its contracting files. Based on this response, SIGAR determined that INL did not comply with federal document retention requirements. In total, State could not demonstrate compliance with it.”
AS a result, between March 1, 2022-November 30, 2022, USD 239,000,000 is unaccounted for.
Since its takeover in August 2021, the Taliban have sought to obtain U.S. funds intended to benefit the Afghan people through several means, including the establishment of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). State officials told SIGAR in September 2023 that they were not aware of any instances in which potential implementing partners were identified as newly created Taliban-affiliated organizations. However, in that same month, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) officials told SIGAR that USAID had “heard reports that over 1,000 new national NGOs have registered with the so-called [Ministry of Economy], and there are rumors that many of these newly registered NGOs may have Taliban affiliations.” The risk of Taliban-founded NGOs, or other organizations that could funnel money to terrorist groups, benefiting from U.S. taxpayer funds underscores the importance of State complying with its own vetting and document retention requirements.
This money has inadvertently gone into Taliban hands.
With all the theatres of war the US is now involved in, how big is this financial misallocation problem?
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