Pentagon Program to Revive Afghan Economy Failed to Account for $675Mln

The US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said that the Department of Defense's program had spent hundreds of millions to revive Afghan economy, but can't provide reliable data on where the money actually went.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — A US Department of Defense program called the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO) spent $675 million on the Afghan economy from 2011 to 2014, but left few records to show where the money went, a report said.

"DOD was unable to provide reliable data showing the extent to which TFBSO projects created jobs, facilitated foreign direct investments, increased exports, or increased Afghan government revenues," the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said on Tuesday.

TFBSO's purpose was to fund business-related projects to reduce violence by encouraging Afghans to focus on economic activity rather that fighting. However the SIGAR report, showed the program to be inept and beyond the Defense Department’s capabilities.

"Because important documents and data were not consistently collected or retained, we could not fully assess the extent to which the $675 million obligated by TFBSO was spent effectively," the report said.

TFBSO often had unrealistic expectations in project execution and it failed to account for local factors including politics, culture, weather, and security, SIGAR said.