October 21, 2020
A report by the US Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) Tuesday, out of the $134 billion since Fiscal Year 2002 for Afghanistan reconstruction, as many as $3.4 billion were wasted in fraud, and abuse.
This wastage was identified in 111 published reports and 55 closed investigations between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019, a SIGAR press release said.
Here are key points from the report.
- As of December 31, 2019, Congress appropriated nearly $134 billion since Fiscal Year 2002 for Afghanistan reconstruction. Of that amount, SIGAR reviewed approximately $63 billion and concluded that a total of approximately $19 billion or 30 percent of the amount reviewed was lost to waste, fraud, and abuse.
- SIGAR identified approximately $3.4 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse in 111 published reports and 55 closed investigations between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019.
- Of this total, we specifically identified approximately $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds that we believe were wasted, $300 million that were lost to fraud, and $34 million that we believe were lost due to abuse. The remaining $1.6 billion was allocated to counter-narcotics efforts that we believe were wasted.
- These totals, coupled with the $15.5 billion of waste, fraud, and abuse and failed whole-of -government efforts SIGAR reported in July 2018, brings the total amount of waste, fraud, and abuse identified by SIGAR’s work to approximately $19 billion from May 2009 through December 31, 2019.
- SIGAR has reviewed approximately 47 percent of the $134 billion that has been appropriated for Afghanistan reconstruction since 2002.
- Of the 111 products and 55 closed investigations we reviewed over the past two years, we identified 323 instances of waste, fraud, and abuse valued in total between $769 million and $1.8 billion. Not all instances of waste had an associated dollar value.
- Waste accounted for approximately 90 percent of the 323 instances of waste, fraud and abuse identified. 209 of these instances of waste were valued at approximately $1.5 billion and include 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.
- SIGAR’s work through December 31, 2019, has resulted in about $3.2 billion in savings for the U.S. taxpayer. Based on our audit recommendations, we identified approximately half of this savings, or $1.6 billion, as funds that agencies could put to better use for other programs or efforts. The other half of the $3.2 billion in savings, or $1.6 billion, reflects the results of SIGAR’s investigative work.
