KABUL - Highlighting the Afghan government's money-management weakness, the U.S. Defense Department officials have been reported by Washington Examiner as saying that the Afghan government agencies may have wasted billions of dollars in direct U.S. aid.
The source revealed that the officials with the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) told the Pentagon's Inspector General that they felt "pressure to maintain hard-fought gains" in the development of Afghan security forces and as a result, were willing to "overlook" troubled contracts made possible by U.S. and coalition funds.
"The Pentagon watchdog found that Afghan agencies enforced no formal spending requirements to protect the flood of funding the U.S. and other nations poured into the country to support the developing national security forces," it added.
The inspector general, according to Washington Examiner, has warned that Afghanistan would not be able to continue functioning without uninterrupted support of NATO contributions if it didn't address the contracting problems.
"Until it mitigates these challenges, [the government of Afghanistan] will continue to depend on coalition-provided capabilities," the report said. "Future direct assistance funds are vulnerable to fraud and abuse."
Afghanistan and CSTC-A, however, have already signed a bilateral agreement to safeguard U.S. assistance against waste and abuse.
"Afghan Ministry of Defense overpaid more than $180 million for fuel it purchased that was intended for fleets of vehicles that didn't even work," the source added.
The Pentagon, according to Examiner, has pumped $3.3 billion into Afghanistan's security forces between 2010 and 2013 and plans to contribute another $13 billion between 2015 and 2019.
The Afghan analysts, meanwhile, urge the government to bring all the corrupt Afghan defense ministry officials to justice.
"Those who are involved in this corruption should be brought to justice, and the future contracts should be monitored transparently," MP Sayed Ali Kazimi said.
Soon after taking the oath as the new president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani promised to fight corruption which has caused that the country to be known globally as the most corrupt country in the world. (Tolonews)