By ANDRE FRANCISCO
A new joint audit by the Inspectors General (IGs) of the Department of State (DOS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) found that the DOS didn't properly obligate or return to DoD approximately $172.4 million from funds for the training of the Afghan National Police (ANP). Additionally, the report found that some of those funds went to paying contractors for hours they didn’t work.
The DoD gave the DOS $1.26 billion for training of the ANP, but some of this money was improperly spent in other areas, even though it was specifically designated for training the ANP, according to the joint audit.
The report says that the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) used $22.47 million for “a United Nations LOTFA contribution, the Federal Prosecutors Program, counternarcotics personnel salaries, travel costs, and a DynCorp equitable adjustment.” DynCorp is one of the largest military contractors, and it provides security and training in Afghanistan. Some of that money went towards ANP salaries and “reform initiatives,” but not training as it was intended.
More than $300,000 went to travel costs from Texas to Washington, DC for DynCorp personnel to attend weekly meetings, even though DynCorp was supposed to have employees in DC who could have attended the meetings. On top of that, the report found that the transportation, hotel and flight costs were all not in compliance with contract regulations.
One example is of an employee purchasing a round-trip ticket for $355, but then changing his ticket so many times that it ended up costing $1,931. Some travel costs were for five-day trips, even though meetings only happened on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The IGs also found that in a 2-week period, 84 percent of contractor personnel worked less than the 8- to 12-hour workday, but were paid for a full day. This resulted in an overpayment of $449,406 for those two weeks. The report points out that if this pattern happened every week, that would mean over the course of a year the government would be overpaying the contractor by $11.68 million.
The report found that this money was misspent because “DOS lacked adequate procedures for obligating, monitoring, and deobligating DoD funds for the ANP training program.”
The report also warns that if almost $75 million of these incorrect obligations are not fixed, it could result in a violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act, which prohibits the government from entering into any contracts that aren’t completely funded.
Photo by ISAF Public Affairs.
Andre Francisco is a POGO Associate.
When will these wastrels be called to account? What is the US Attorney doing about this? Any criminal investigations should include government officials who have no good excuse for lack of oversight and could be said to be criminally negligent, though not seeking monetary gains.
Posted by: ObserverVII | Jul 11, 2011 at 11:02 AM