The United States has often made bad decisions while trying to reconstruct Afghanistan, where hundreds of millions of American tax dollars are going to waste.

 

As much as $400 million has been spent unwisely on large construction projects, according to John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, in a new report. Some examples include a police base that cost nearly $5 million to build, but doesn’t have a water supply, and another built with U.S. dollars that doesn’t have a septic system.

 

Sopko also reported that many projects are running so far behind schedule that they may not provide any benefit to Afghans until after U.S. combat forces leave the country, if they are completed at all.

 

The Afghan government lacks the money or expertise to maintain many of the projects, Sopko found, which could erode confidence among the populace in the U.S.-backed regime.

 

“Without effective security — the object of more than $50 billion in U.S. appropriations since 2002 — governance and socioeconomic development cannot succeed,” Sopko wrote. “But without sustainability, no amount of success in security can long endure.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

To Learn More:

Millions of Dollars in U.S. Aid Wasted in Afghanistan (by Zach Toombs, Center for Public Integrity)

U.S. Construction Projects in Afghanistan Challenged by Inspector General’s Report (by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post)

Quarterly Report to Congress (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) (pdf)

Billions Wasted on Unsustainable Projects in Iraq and Afghanistan (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)