The U.S. government spent approximately USD18 billion dollars on 7,000 contractors and other workers engaged in various reconstruction projects in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2009, according to the latest report of the Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
The report is the first to compile such information, which was drawn from seven U.S. government agencies hiring contractors for reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, The Washington Post notes.
SIGAR’s report is “crucial” because it maps the data needed to conduct government-wide oversight, Special Inspector General Arnold Fields explained according to the Washington Post.
The U.S. currently has no mechanism that allows government agencies engaged in the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan to share information about the contractors they hire. The absence of this mechanism prevents agencies from assessing the overall performance of its hired contractors in Afghanistan.
“SIGAR made no recommendations in the report, which did not identify individual contracts,” the Washington Post reports, adding that the list will be used to better prioritize future audits into contractors’ work and to more quickly identify contracts that are at risk of abuse, waste or fraud.
