One year after the U.S. departure from Afghanistan, a government watchdog is still doing its vital work of accounting for the more than $146 billion invested in the country’s reconstruction since 2002.
That’s more than the Marshall Plan that helped rebuild Europe after World War II, and it doesn’t include the Department of Defense’s warfighting costs of more than $840 billion.
All told, in addition to more than 2,300 service members killed and more than 20,000 wounded, America’s war in Afghanistan cost the nation more than $2 trillion.
To mitigate fraud, waste and abuse as the war in Afghanistan dragged on, Congress created the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction in 2008.
The agency, led by John Sopko since 2012, has issued 700 audits and reports that have saved taxpayers $2.3 billion. Their work has also led to 163 criminal convictions resulting in another $1.6 billion recovered.
That’s a lot of work for 157 people. Their efforts remind us how fraud and corruption can creep in and fester when nobody is looking.
On the one-year anniversary of Kabul’s fall, SIGAR’s work looms large as the United States continues to support Ukraine in its war with against Russia.
We must continue to help Ukraine, but we must also keep track of our assistance to ensure it’s going where we intended.
Ukraine has a long history of corruption. Transparency International, an anti-corruption coalition, ranked Ukraine 122 out of 180 countries in a ranking of perceived corruption. The country scored 32 out of 100, with 0 being perceived as completely corrupt and 100 representing fully in the clear.
By comparison, Russia ranked 136 with a score of 29 and the U.S. came in at 27 with a score of 67.
Congress and President Joe Biden approved a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine in May, just two months after an initial infusion of $13.6 billion.
As of Aug. 8, the United States has invested $9.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Biden took office. Most of those funds, $9.1 billion, were allocated after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. That’s a huge amount of aid, and it’s coming from various agencies across the government, including the Department of Defense, Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development. So far, each agency is responsible for auditing its contributions.
Bills have been introduced in Congress to create the Office of the Special Inspector General for Ukrainian Military, Economic and Humanitarian Aid.
We urge Congress to quickly move on this legislation because, as Sopko said, “delayed oversight comes at a cost, and not just financial.”
He continued that his agency “identified deficiencies which were ingrained in our assistance and training programs from inception which ultimately were significant factors in the collapse of the Afghan security forces and government.”
In addition to oversight, an organization such as SIGAR would add a layer of objectivity and independent assessment to the aid effort.
Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at CSIS, wrote that such a perspective “offers a useful counterpoint to the optimistic reports often coming from military and governmental headquarters.”
The nation’s politicians have called on the nation to invest more than $53 billion to help Ukraine battle Russia. They need to be just as fast-acting and vigilant in the use and oversight of this massive, taxpayer-funded war chest.
— Tribune News Service
