KABUL (SW) – A new report by the US Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction has revealed that nearly $19 billion of funds are lost to waste, fraud, and abuse as of December 2019.
The report said that as of Dec 2019, Congress appropriated nearly $134 billion since FY 2002 for Afghanistan reconstruction. Of that amount, SIGAR reviewed approx. $63 billion and found that nearly $19 billion of amount reviewed was lost to waste, fraud, and abuse
SIGAR identified approx. $1.8 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse between January 2018, and December 2019 in its 111 audits, inspections, and special projects reports, and in 55 closed investigations. Of 111 products and 55 closed investigations SIGAR reviewed over past two years, it identified 323 instances of waste, fraud and abuse valued in total between $769 million and $1.8 billion. Take a look at Table 1 which breaks down the findings.
These instances included programs and projects that lacked clear program goals, performance measures, and quality data to support management decisions, as well as assets that were not used, abandoned, or posed safety hazards.
ENDS
