[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 60 (Tuesday, April 19, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H1807-H1809]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WASTING TAXPAYER MONEY IN AFGHANISTAN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
North Carolina (Mr. Jones) for 5 minutes.
Mr. JONES. Madam Speaker, I have brought to the floor today a
prophetic political cartoon. Let me describe it very quickly.
There is Uncle Sam sitting in a wheelchair, and he shouts out with
great excitement: I can see Greece from here. Behind the wheelchair
pushing is President Obama. Behind President Obama is a donkey
representing the Democratic Party, and behind the donkey is an elephant
representing the Republican Party, the point being that all of us are
guilty of heading this country towards Greece, and that means an
economic collapse is forthcoming.
Madam Speaker, we are $19 trillion in debt.
Another reason I am on the floor today is that the continued waste of
the taxpayer money in Afghanistan is becoming astounding.
Madam Speaker, I include in the Record an article titled, ``Report
cites wasted Pentagon money in Afghanistan.''
[From USATODAY.com, Jan. 20, 2016]
Report Cites Wasted Pentagon Money in Afghanistan
(By Tom Vanden Brook)
Washington.--The embattled Pentagon agency blamed for
building a budget-busting gas station in Afghanistan and
renting luxury housing for its employees also imported
Italian goats to boost the cashmere industry in the
impoverished, war-wracked country, according to a government
investigator.
Meanwhile, the former head of the Task Force for Business
Stability Operations, Paul Brinkley, blasted back Wednesday
at the government inspector general, accusing him of
inaccuracy and hype.
At a Senate hearing, John Sopko, the Special Inspector
General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), said in prepared
testimony that the task force lacked ``strategic direction''
and suffered from a ``scattershot approach to economic
development.''
Among the more egregious examples of boondoggles he cited:
``importing rare blond Italian goats to boost the cashmere
industry.'' The $6 million program included shipping nine
male goats to western Afghanistan from Italy, setting up a
farm, lab and staff to certify their wool.
A chart summarizing task force initiatives shows the
inspector general did not conduct an audit of the program.
The program, according to a contractor's analysis, may have
created as many as 350 jobs. Sopko ripped the Pentagon and
the task force for failing to track its spending. It's not
unclear, for instance, if the goats were eaten.
``We don't know,'' Sopko said. ``This was so poorly
managed.''
Sopko testified Wednesday on his report, ``Preliminary
Results Show Serious Management and Oversight Problems.'' The
task force was charged with jump starting the economy of
Afghanistan with nearly $800 million in U.S. taxpayer funds.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., who chaired the hearing, called
the allegations about the filling station troubling and
called for a full accounting of task force spending.
``What happened to the money?'' Ayotte asked. ``All of
it?''
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., was livid about task force
spending and called the natural gas-station program ``dumb on
its face,'' given the cost of converting cars to natural gas
exceeds the average income of Afghans.
``This is a terrible waste of taxpayer money when we have
so many other uses for it,'' McCaskill said.
In a letter and other documents, Brinkley, who led the task
force in Iraq and later Afghanistan from 2006 to 2011,
defended his oversight of the agency and lashed out at the
government's watchdog.
``A meaningful and balanced review cannot be accomplished
through a sustained media campaign or a practice of repeating
uncorroborated allegations,'' Brinkley wrote to the Senate
Armed Services Committee.
Sopko has released several provocative reports charging the
task force with waste and shoddy accounting practices. Among
the most eye-catching: a $43 million natural-gas filling
station that should have cost $500,000 and proved of no use
to average Afghans; and $150 million spent on renting luxury
villas for task force staff and visitors. Those alleged
boondoggles have drawn ire from Capitol Hill and cast
Brinkley as a profligate spender.
Brinkley, through his lawyer, bristled at the charge from
the inspector general that he had approved of programs
without knowing their cost. Brinkley told investigators on
Dec. 17 that his task force had no contracting authority,
relying instead on career military officials to make deals
within government regulations, according to his lawyer.
``This was done, in fact, in fact to ensure proper
oversight--not to avoid it,'' Brinkley's lawyer, Charles
Duross, wrote Wednesday to the inspector general's office.
The Pentagon on Wednesday also took issue with Sopko's
price tag for the gas station, saying it was closer to $5
million, not $43 million. Brian McKeon, a top Pentagon policy
official, said in a statement to USA TODAY that the methods
used Sopko were ``flawed, and the costs of the station are
far lower.''
The refueling station itself cost $2.9 million, and the
balance of the $5 million paid for associated buildings and
equipment, McKeon said.
Brinkley, in his letter, challenged the assertion that he
and his staff lived in luxury, eschewing the basic, free
accommodations offered by the military in Afghanistan.
In a previous report, Sopko criticized the task force for
spending $150 million on ``western-style hotel
accommodations'' that included flat-screen TVs, private
bodyguards and ``three-star'' menus for staff and guests.
Bunking with the Army, Sopko suggested, could have saved
taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
Living conditions during his tenure, Brinkley wrote, were
far from luxurious--``basic and minimal, with multiple bunks
in shared living quarters'' or on military bases.
``When this was not possible or practical, the challenge
was to find facilities that did not continually smell of raw
sewage, and food that did not frequently sicken our personnel
or visiting government and business leaders--a challenge we
never fully overcame,'' Brinkley wrote.
The task force's final grade is not yet in, McKeon said.
``Ultimately, time will tell whether the task force
succeeded in its overall objectives,'' McKeon said. ``Reports
that the (Pentagon) commissioned to assess the Task Force's
work--as well as SIGAR's work--tell us that the Task Force
had a mixed record of success, with some successes and some
failures.''
Mr. JONES. In this story, John Sopko, the Inspector General for
Afghanistan Reconstruction, tells that the worst boondoggle he has ever
seen is the fact that the Department of Defense spent $6 million to buy
nine goats--nine goats--for $6 million.
The sad thing about that is he testified before the Senate: We can't
find the goats. What does that mean to the taxpayers? I don't know
anymore. That is why they are so outraged, quite frankly,
Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a second article titled, ``12
Ways Your Tax Dollars Were Squandered in Afghanistan.''
[From NBC NEWS.com, March 5, 2016]
12 Ways Your Tax Dollars Were Squandered in Afghanistan
(By Alexander Smith)
The United States has now spent more money reconstructing
Afghanistan than it did rebuilding Europe at the end of World
War II, according to a government watchdog.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan
Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in a statement to Congress last
week that when adjusted for inflation the $113.1 billion
plowed
[[Page H1808]]
into the chaos-riven country outstripped the post-WWII spend
by at least $10 billion.
Billions have been squandered on projects that were either
useless or sub-standard, or lost to waste, corruption, and
systemic abuse, according to SIGAR's reports.
NBC News spoke to SIGAR's Special Inspector General John F.
Sopko about 12 of the most bizarre and baffling cases
highlighted by his team's investigations.
Paraphrasing Albert Einstein, Sopko said the U.S.'s
profligate spending in Afghanistan is ``the definition of
insanity--doing the same things over and over vain, expecting
a different result.''
The Pentagon spent close to half a billion dollars on 20
Italian-made cargo planes that it eventually scrapped and
sold for just $32,000, according to SIGAR.
``These planes were the wrong planes for Afghanistan,''
Sopko told NBC News. ``The U.S. had difficulty getting the
Afghans to fly them, and our pilots called them deathtraps.
One pilot said parts started falling off while he was coming
into land.''
After being taken out of use in March 2013, the G222
aircraft, which are also referred to as the C-27A Spartan,
were towed to a corner of Kabul International Airport where
they were visible from the civilian terminal. They had
``trees and bushes growing around them,'' the inspector
general said.
Sixteen of the planes were scrapped and sold to a local
construction company for 6 cents a pound, SIGAR said. The
other four remained unused at a U.S. base in Germany.
Sopko called the planes ``one of the biggest single
programs in Afghanistan that was a total failure.''
The Tarakhil Power Plant was fired up in 2009 to ``provide
more reliable power'' to blackout-plagued Kabul, according to
the United States Agency for International Development, which
built the facility.
However, the ``modern'' diesel plant exported just 8,846
megawatt hours of power between February 2014 and April 2015,
SIGAR said in a letter to USAID last August. This output was
less than 1 percent of the plant's capacity and provided just
0.35 percent of power to Kabul, a city of 4.6 million people.
Related: U.S. Spent $43M on Gas Station But Can't Explain
Why
Furthermore, the plant's ``frequent starts and stops . . .
place greater wear and tear on the engines and electrical
components,'' which could result in its ``catastrophic
failure,'' the watchdog said.
USAID responded to SIGAR's report in June 2015, saying:
``We have no indication that [Afghan state-run utility
company] Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), failed to
operate Tarakhil as was alleged in your letter.''
U.S. officials directed and oversaw the construction of an
Afghan police training facility in 2012 that was so poorly
built that its walls actually fell apart in the rain. The
$456,669 dry-fire range in Wardak province was ``not only an
embarrassment, but, more significantly, a waste of U.S.
taxpayers' money,'' SIGAR's report said in January 2015.
It was overseen by the U.S. Central Command's Joint Theater
Support Contracting Command and contracted out to an Afghan
firm, the Qesmatullah Nasrat Construction Company.
SIGAR said this ``melting'' started just four months after
the building was finished in October 2012. It blamed U.S.
officials' bad planning and failure to hold to account the
Afghan construction firm, which used poor-quality materials.
The U.S. subsequently contracted another firm to rebuild the
facility.
Sopko called the incident ``baffling.'' ``Afghans
apparently have never grown or eaten soybeans before,'' SIGAR
said in its June 2014 report. This did not stop the U.S.
Department of Agriculture funding a $34.4 million program by
the American Soybean Association to try to introduce the
foodstuff into the country in 2010.
The project ``did not meet expectations,'' the USDA
confirmed to SIGAR, largely owing to inappropriate farming
conditions in Afghanistan and the fact no one wanted to buy a
product they had never eaten.
``They didn't grow them, they didn't eat them, there was no
market for them, and yet we thought it was a good idea,''
Sopko told NBC News.
``What is troubling about this particular project is that
it appears that many of these problems could reasonably have
been foreseen and, therefore, possibly avoided,'' the
inspector general wrote in a letter to Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack in June 2014.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built some 2,000 buildings
to be used as barracks, medical clinics and fire stations by
the Afghan National Army as part of a $1.57-billion program.
When two fires in October and December 2012 revealed that
around 80 percent of these structures did not meet
international building regulations for fire safety, Sopko
said he was ``troubled'' by the ``arrogant'' response from a
senior USACE chief.
Major General Michael R. Eyre, commanding general of
USACE's Transatlantic Division, said the risk of fire was
acceptable because ``the typical occupant populations for
these facilities are young, fit Afghan soldiers.'' Writing in
a January 2014 memo published by SIGAR, Eyre said these
recruits ``have the physical ability to make a hasty retreat
during a developing situation.''
Sopko told NBC News that Eyre's comments ``showed a really
poor attitude toward our allies.'' He added: ``It was an
unbelievable arrogance, and I'm sorry to say that about a
senior officer.''
Despite the Department of Defense spending $597,929 on
Salang Hospital in Afghanistan's Parwan province, the 20-bed
facility has been forced to resort to startling medical
practices.
``Because there was no clean water, staff at the hospital
were washing newborns with untreated river water,'' SIGAR's
report said in January 2014. It added that the ``poorly
constructed'' building was also at increased ``risk of
structural collapse during an earthquake.''
NBC News visited the hospital in January 2014 and witnessed
some disturbing practices: a doctor poking around a dental
patient's mouth with a pair of unsterilized scissors before
yanking out another's tooth with a pair of pliers.
Related: $600K in U.S. Taxpayer Cash Buys Medieval Hospital
in Afghanistan
The United States Forces-Afghanistan responded to SIGAR's
report in January 2014 saying it would investigate why the
building was not constructed to standard.
In a separate report, SIGAR said that USAID reimbursed the
International Organization for Migration for spiraling costs
while building Gardez Hospital, in Paktia province.
The IOM's ``weak internal controls'' meant it paid $300,000
for just 600 gallons of diesel fuel--a price of $500 per
gallon when market prices should not have exceeded $5, SIGAR
said.
The so-called ``64K'' command-and-control facility at
Afghanistan's Camp Leatherneck cost $36 million and was ``a
total waste of U.S. taxpayer funds,'' SIGAR's report said in
May 2015.
The facility in Helmand province--named because it measured
64,000 square feet--was intended to support the U.S. troop
surge of 2010.
However, a year before its construction, the very general
in charge of the surge asked that it not be built because the
existing facilities were ``more than sufficient,'' the
watchdog said. But another general denied this cancellation
request, according to SIGAR, because he said it would not be
``prudent'' to quit a project for which funds had already
been appropriated by Congress.
Ultimately, construction did not begin until May 2011, two
months before the drawdown of the troops involved in surge.
Sopko found the ``well-built and newly furnished'' building
totally untouched in June 2013, with plastic sheets still
covering the furniture.
``Again, nobody was held to account,'' Sopko told NBC News,
adding it was a ``gross . . . really wasteful, extremely
wasteful amount of money.''
He added: ``We have thrown too much money at the country.
We pour in money not really thinking about it.''
A now-defunct Pentagon task force spent almost $40 million
on Afghanistan's oil, mining and gas industry--but no one
remembered to tell America's diplomats in Kabul, according to
SIGAR, citing a senior official at the U.S. embassy in the
city.
In fact, the first the U.S. ambassador knew about the
multi-billion-dollar spend was when Afghan government
officials thanked him for his country's support, SIGAR said.
The project, administered by the Task Force for Business
and Stability Operations (TFBSO), was part of a wider $488
million investment that also included the State Department
and USAID. These organizations ``failed to coordinate and
prioritize'' their work, which created ``poor working
relationships, and . . . potential sustainability problems,''
according to SIGAR.
It was, according to Sopko, ``a real disaster.''
One USAID official told the watchdog it would take the U.S.
``100 years'' to complete the necessary infrastructure and
training Afghanistan needs to completely develop these
industries.
SIGAR said the U.S. military has been unable to provide
records answering ``the most basic questions'' surrounding
the mystery purchase and cancellation of eight patrol boats
for landlocked Afghanistan.
The scant facts SIGAR were able to find indicated the boats
were bought in 2010 to be Used by the Afghan National Police,
and that they were intended to be deployed along the
country's northern river border with Uzbekistan.
``The order was cancelled--without explanation--nine months
later,'' SIGAR said. The boats were still sitting unused at a
Navy warehouse in Yorktown, Virginia, as of 2014.
``We bought in a navy for a landlocked country,'' Sopko
said.
Despite the U.S. plowing some $7.8 billion into stopping
Afghanistan's drug trade,'' Afghan farmers are growing more
opium than ever before,'' SIGAR reported in December 2014.
``Poppy-growing provinces that were once declared 'poppy
free' have seen a resurgence in cultivation,'' it said,
noting that internationally funded irrigation projects may
have actually increased poppy growth in recent years.
The ``fragile gains'' the U.S. has made on Afghan health,
education and rule of law were being put in ``jeopardy or
wiped out by the narcotics trade, which not only supports the
insurgency, but also feeds organized crime and corruption,''
Sopko told U.S. lawmakers in January 2014.
Afghanistan is the world's leader in the production of
opium. In 2013, the value of Afghan opium was $3 billion--
equivalent to 15 percent of the country's GDP--according to
the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime.
Sopko told NBC News the picture is no more optimistic
today. ``No matter which
[[Page H1809]]
metric you use, this effort has been a real failure,'' he
said.
The USAID-funded Shorandam Industrial Park in Kandahar
province was transferred to the Afghan government in
September 2010 with the intention of accommodating 48
business and hundreds of local employees. Four years later,
SIGAR inspectors found just one active company operating
there.
This was due to the U.S. military building a power plant on
one-third of the industrial park to provide electricity to
nearby Kandahar City, causing ``entrepreneurs to shy away
from setting up businesses'' at the site, SIGAR said in its
report of April 2015.
After the military withdrew in mid-2014, the investigators
were told that at least four Afghan businesses had moved into
the industrial park. However, SIGAR said that it could not
complete a thorough inspection because USAID's contract files
were ``missing important documentation.''
The DOD spent nearly $82 million on nine incineration
facilities in Afghanistan--yet four of them never fired their
furnaces, SIGAR said in February 2015. These four dormant
facilities had eight incinerators between them and the
wastage cost $20.1 million.
In addition, SIGAR inspectors said it was ``disturbing''
that ``prohibited items,'' such as tires and batteries,
continued to be burned in Afghanistan's 251 burn pits. U.S.
military personnel were also exposed to emissions from these
pits ``that could have lasting negative health
consequences,'' the watchdog said.
The Department of Defense said it was ``vitally interested
in exploring all possible ways to save taxpayer dollars and
ensure we are good stewards of government resources.''
A spokesman added: ``We'll continue to work with SIGAR, and
other agencies, to help get to the bottom of any reported
issues or concerns.''
A spokesman for Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani
declined to comment on this story.
Mr. JONES. Madam Speaker, we have already spent more in Afghanistan
than it cost to rebuild Europe after World War II. In fact, last week I
asked my staff to draft a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan.
In the letter, I asked the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, to meet
with John Sopko, who is the Inspector General for Afghanistan
Reconstruction, and listen to this absolute waste that is going on in
Afghanistan.
Yet, sometime soon we will mark up the NDAA, National Defense
Authorization Act, and I will guarantee you there will be billions of
dollars in OCO funds going to Afghanistan.
There will be those of us on both sides of the aisle that would like
to take that money out or significantly reduce the money. Last year it
was over $43 billion in OCO funds, which is nothing but a slush fund.
Madam Speaker, there is a famous line about Afghanistan. It says that
Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires.
I predict today--but I hope I am wrong--if we continue to spend and
waste billions of dollars in Afghanistan, there will be a headstone in
that graveyard that says: USA.
I hope that does not happen. But we had better wake up, as Members of
Congress, and stop supporting programs like money for Afghanistan that
are a total waste of the taxpayers' money.
Madam Speaker, I will ask God to continue to bless our men and women
in uniform and ask God to continue to bless America.
____________________