Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa made the following comment on a new report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), “Afghanistan’s Oil, Gas, and Minerals Industries: $488 Million in U.S. Efforts Show Limited Progress Overall, and Challenges Prevent Further Investment and Growth” (SIGAR Audit 16-11). Grassley is looking at wasteful U.S. spending in Afghanistan, including money spent through the Defense Department’s temporary Task Force for Business and Stability Operations.
“Unfortunately for these kinds of projects in Afghanistan, you don’t even need the fingers on one hand to count the success stories. It’s too bad that U.S. taxpayers must bear the brunt of so many expensive failures. With these mining debacles, U.S. tax dollars almost literally went down a hole. I’m repeating the call for the Defense Department to give SIGAR complete access to all Afghanistan development task force documents. The documents are necessary so SIGAR can conduct an audit and render an accounting that tells us exactly how the money was spent and who should be held accountable for the wasted funds.”
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