US paying for non-existent Afghan troops

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) is seeking information from the Pentagon on discrepancies found in the $68 billion in funding between 2002 and now.

SIGAR is particularly concerned about the apparent funding of "ghost soldiers" who do not actually exist. Higher ranking military personnel are claimed to have added names to lists of personnel who do not actually exist and then to have embezzled the salaries paid to them. The extent of the practice is not clear. The situation is complicated by the fact that many Afghan recruits just collect their first pay check and then disappear. A rough estimate is that there are tens of thousands of these "ghost soldiers'. In a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter back in August, inspector general John Sopko wrote: "Persistent reports indicating discrepancies between the assigned force strength of the ANDSF and the actual number of personnel serving raise questions regarding whether the U.S. government is taking adequate steps to prevent taxpayer funds from being spent on so-called ‘ghost’ soldiers."

The problem of "ghost soldiers" is not only that the US taxpayer is being bilked of large sums but that the Afghan forces are far fewer than thought. Checkpoints overrun by the Taliban may be overruun because there are actually less defenders at the checkpoint than official data shows.

There are not just problems of "ghost soldiers' but of Afghan soldiers going AWOL in the US. Eight Afghan trainees went missing in the US in September. Since 2015, 45 in total have disappeared and become illegal immigrants. One was caught by Canadian authorities trying to enter Canada.

SIGAR expressed doubts in a letter to the US Defense Department at what it called "significant gaps between the assigned force strength of the (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) and the actual number of personnel serving." SIGAR was particularly concerned about the situation in Helmand Province where Afghan forces have been struggling to fend off Taliban attacks. TOLO news service in Afghanistan quoted the incoming Helmand policy chief as claiming that up to half the roughtly 26,000 troops and police officers assigned to the province did not actually exist.

Earlier this year, the Associated Press reported that while army, local and national police are said to number about 320,000 that there were likely less than half that number in reality. The Department of Defense(DOD) says several efforts are underway to stop the payment of "ghost soldiers". It claimed there had been person-to-person verification and biometric registration. The DOD said 90 percent of police and 70-80 percent of soldiers had been biometrically enrolled. Next year payment of salaries would go direclty to employees.

Pentagon cannot account for $1.3 billion sent to US commanders in Afghanistan

The Pentagon is unable to account for $1.3 billion in funds sent to commanders in Afghanistan through the years 2004 to 2014 for reconstruction projects.

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These funds were sent to military commanders in order to bypass bureaucracy to speed up construction of badly needed infrastructure, including roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, and water treatment facilities. The $1.3 billion for which there is no account represents about 60 percent of funds allocated to the program. About 70 percent of the $100 billion the US has spent during its 13.5 years in aid to Afghanistan has gone through the Pentagon with the remainder distributed through the US Agency for International Development(USAID) and other civilian departments.

John Sopko, the US special investigator general for Afghan reconstruction (SIGAR), spent a year studying the $2.26 billion spent on the Commander's Emergency Response Program(CERP). Sopko's report said:"In reviewing this data, SIGAR found that the Department of Defense could only provide financial information relating to the disbursement of funds for CERP projects totaling $890 million (40 percent) of the approximately $2.2 billion in obligated funds at that time,"

The report analyzed the expenditures under 20 categories such as, transportation, water and sanitation, health care, education, etc. However, there was an added category called "unknown" that contained 5,163 projects while all the other categories together came only to 4,494 projects. The Pentagon so far has not commented on the SIGAR findings.

US Central Command, the overseer of military operations in Afghanistan as well as many other countries said that some of the money could have been redirected to other more urgent military requirements such as counterinsurgency. In a Feb. 25 email to Sopko's office Central Command said: “Although the (inspector general’s) report is technically accurate, it did not discuss the counterinsurgency strategies in relationship to CERP, In addition (to) the 20 uses of CERP funds, it was also used as a tool for counterinsurgency.”This comment hardly explains why money set aside for emergency reconstruction had to be used for counter insurgency. The bulk of the approximately $800 billion spent on the Afghan war was for military needs. "Counterinsurgency" is just not one of the 20 defined categories under this emergency response program.

Almost half of the funds under the CERP program were spent in just two provinces, Kandahar, and Helmand two areas with the most Taliban activities and bloodiest battles. Almost a third of the funds, $289 million were spent in Kandahar. Since being established in 2008, SIGAR has issued dozens of reports documenting how billions in aid has been lost through waste or corruption. One report found that tens of thousands of surplus AK-47 assault weapons and other weapons shipped to Afghanistan had simply disappeared. Another report found that the US continued to give Afghan security forces a planned $1.4 billion for gasoline purchases even though evidence showed that some of the money had been siphoned off for other unexplained uses.

US spends almost half a billion for Afghan planes and then sells them for scrap

So far only 16 of 20 Italian-made military transport planes bought by the U.S. for the Afghan Air Force (AAF) at a cost of almost $500 million have been sold for scrap at about six cents a pound.

The US government is investigating why millions were spent in this wasteful program. The exact cost was $486 million. However, when maintenance costs are included, the total cost was $596 million before officials simply decided to park the planes. In March 2013, the entire fleet had to be grounded because of "sustained, serious performance, maintenance, and spare parts problems" according to John Sopko who is the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction(SIGAR) head. The planes were purchased in 2008.
 With 16 of the planes sitting unused at Kabul International Airport, officials decided to sell them for scrap. SIGAR was intending to inspect the aircraft as part of their investigation into the affair but found that the 16 planes had already been sold for scrap. Sopko noted: “It has come to my attention that the sixteen G222s at Kabul were recently towed to the far side of the airport and scrapped by the Defense Logistics Agency. I was also informed that an Afghan construction company paid approximately 6 cents a pound for the scrapped planes, which came to a total of $32,000. I am concerned that the officials responsible for planning and executing the scrapping of the planes may not have considered other possible alternatives in order to salvage taxpayer dollars.” The remaining four G222s are parked at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.
Sopko is concerned that US officials did not consider other options before they allowed the destruction of the planes for scrap. SIGAR wants advance notice from the Department of Defense if it is decided to destroy the other four planes. This debacle is just one of many as most US troops are packing up to leave Afghanistan. Officials must decide what is to be left and what is worth packing up and shipping to the US or elsewhere often at considerable expense.
An article in April of this year calculates that the US military will leave $6 billion worth of "stuff" in Afghanistan when most leave the end of this year. Included in the equipment are 850 MRAPS vehicles that are Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected(MRAP). These will be given away to any allied country willing to pay shipping costs or sold for scrap in Afghanistan. Figures provided to Fox News show the Defense Logistics Agency(DLA) Disposition Services sold a total of 34.7 million pounds of vehicles and equipment as scrap to local Afghan vendors. In the past 12 months, DLA sold 387 million pounds of scrap providing $46.5 million to the US Treasury in return.