WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2020) A US watchdog identified another $3.4 billion in funding wasted on trying to rebuild Afghanistan, raising the total amount lost to $19 billion, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko told Congress in a letter released on Tuesday.
"These totals, coupled with the $15.5 billion of waste, fraud, and abuse and failed whole-of-government efforts we reported in July 2018, bring the total amount of waste, fraud, and abuse identified by SIGAR's work to approximately $19 billion from May 2009 through December 31, 2019," Sopko said in a letter accompanying a report.
Between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2019, SIGAR identified approximately $1.8 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse in 111 audits, inspections, and special projects reports, and in 55 closed investigations, the report said. SIGAR said that it also included an additional $1.6 billion of waste related to funds allocated to programs with a counter-narcotics component that its investigators did not include in its previous report.
The total levels of waste during the 18 years of US involvement in Afghanistan could be twice as high, or around $30 billion since so far SIGAR has only reviewed about 47 percent of the $134 billion that has been appropriated for Afghanistan reconstruction since 2002, the report said.
