WASHINGTON, Sept 16: The US government money spent on contracts in Afghanistan is ending up in the hands of the Taliban that American troops have been fighting for nearly a decade, and it is unlikely the flow can be shut off completely, a senior Pentagon official revealed on Thursday.
Testifying before a House oversight panel, Army Brig-Gen Stephen Townsend did not provide figures but said US military authorities in Kabul were working to stem the flow by tightening oversight of contracts and vetting prospective vendors more carefully.
An AP report said last month a special US task force estimated that $360 million in US contracting dollars had been lost to the Taliban, criminals and power brokers with ties to both. US officials said only a small percentage of the total had been garnered by the Taliban and militant groups.
Gen Townsend, director of the PakistanAfghanistan Coordination Cell, noted that the $360 million represented a fraction of the $31 billion in active US contracts that the task force had reviewed. Still, he said, it is a large sum.
“It’s clear to us some of that money is going to the insurgency and we’ve got to do whatever we can to stop that,” Gen Townsend told the House Oversight and Government Reform national security subcommittee. “I don’t think we can completely stop it, but we’ve got to do whatever we can to minimise it.” Overall, the subcommittee’s hearing painted a bleak picture of stemming corruption in Afghanistan.
“It’s just rotten from top to bottom over there,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Democrat. “We’re getting fleeced.” Gary Motsek, deputy assistant secretary of defence for programme support, didn’t dispute Mr Lynch’s assessment.
“This is a society that is based on 3,000plus years of doing things this way,” he said. “We are not going to change it overnight.” Instead of trying to eliminate corruption, US efforts should be focused on controlling it “so that our interests, our dollars, our values and our resources are protected,” Mr Motsek said.
Rep. John Tierney, a Democrat, and Mr Motsek sparred briefly over the Pentagon’s decision not to ban the Watan Group, an Afghan-owned company, from doing business with the US after the firm was accused of operating an illicit protec tion racket while working under an army transportation contract.
Mr Tierney said the Pentagon let the company “off the hook.” Mr Motsek said an army official made the call based on the facts he had in front of him.
“I just don’t find that satisfactory,” countered Mr Tierney, who detailed his complaints about the decision in a Sept 13 letter to Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.
Mr Tierney led an investigation last year that concluded that Watan’s owners, Ahmad and Rashid Popal, and Haji Ruhullah, a former Watan employee, had bribed local Afghan officials and used heavy weapons prohibited by the contract. They all denied funnelling money to the Taliban, Mr Tierney said, but evidence gathered by his staff “raised doubts about those claims”.
Mr Ruhullah was not barred from US contracting. The army cited his status as a subordinate at Watan and said his inability to speak English meant he could not understand the terms of the contract.
But Gen Townsend said Mr Ruhullah remains under watch by US authorities. “I can’t go into it a whole lot, but Ruhullah is not off our scope,” he said.
Gerald Posner, Mr Ruhullah’s lawyer, said his client “stands ready and willing to help US investigators and I hope they provide him an opportunity to answer any questions they might have.” Watan, represented by the Washington law firm Venable LLP, went to federal court earlier this year when it appeared the army would ban them from US contracting. A judge dismissed the suit.—AP
Testifying before a House oversight panel, Army Brig-Gen Stephen Townsend did not provide figures but said US military authorities in Kabul were working to stem the flow by tightening oversight of contracts and vetting prospective vendors more carefully.
An AP report said last month a special US task force estimated that $360 million in US contracting dollars had been lost to the Taliban, criminals and power brokers with ties to both. US officials said only a small percentage of the total had been garnered by the Taliban and militant groups.
Gen Townsend, director of the PakistanAfghanistan Coordination Cell, noted that the $360 million represented a fraction of the $31 billion in active US contracts that the task force had reviewed. Still, he said, it is a large sum.
“It’s clear to us some of that money is going to the insurgency and we’ve got to do whatever we can to stop that,” Gen Townsend told the House Oversight and Government Reform national security subcommittee. “I don’t think we can completely stop it, but we’ve got to do whatever we can to minimise it.” Overall, the subcommittee’s hearing painted a bleak picture of stemming corruption in Afghanistan.
“It’s just rotten from top to bottom over there,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Democrat. “We’re getting fleeced.” Gary Motsek, deputy assistant secretary of defence for programme support, didn’t dispute Mr Lynch’s assessment.
“This is a society that is based on 3,000plus years of doing things this way,” he said. “We are not going to change it overnight.” Instead of trying to eliminate corruption, US efforts should be focused on controlling it “so that our interests, our dollars, our values and our resources are protected,” Mr Motsek said.
Rep. John Tierney, a Democrat, and Mr Motsek sparred briefly over the Pentagon’s decision not to ban the Watan Group, an Afghan-owned company, from doing business with the US after the firm was accused of operating an illicit protec tion racket while working under an army transportation contract.
Mr Tierney said the Pentagon let the company “off the hook.” Mr Motsek said an army official made the call based on the facts he had in front of him.
“I just don’t find that satisfactory,” countered Mr Tierney, who detailed his complaints about the decision in a Sept 13 letter to Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.
Mr Tierney led an investigation last year that concluded that Watan’s owners, Ahmad and Rashid Popal, and Haji Ruhullah, a former Watan employee, had bribed local Afghan officials and used heavy weapons prohibited by the contract. They all denied funnelling money to the Taliban, Mr Tierney said, but evidence gathered by his staff “raised doubts about those claims”.
Mr Ruhullah was not barred from US contracting. The army cited his status as a subordinate at Watan and said his inability to speak English meant he could not understand the terms of the contract.
But Gen Townsend said Mr Ruhullah remains under watch by US authorities. “I can’t go into it a whole lot, but Ruhullah is not off our scope,” he said.
Gerald Posner, Mr Ruhullah’s lawyer, said his client “stands ready and willing to help US investigators and I hope they provide him an opportunity to answer any questions they might have.” Watan, represented by the Washington law firm Venable LLP, went to federal court earlier this year when it appeared the army would ban them from US contracting. A judge dismissed the suit.—AP
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