Watchdog Questions USAID Spending on Controversial Afghan Dam Project by Heath Druzin, Stars and Stripes
A controversial dam project in Afghanistan is now so over budget that even by the estimates of the U.S. government aid agency that continues to fund it, the cost has far surpassed its potential benefits, the top U.S. watchdog in Afghanistan said.
“This cost increase indicates that the (project) may no longer be economically viable,” Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko wrote in an inquiry letter to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) requesting an explanation of the causes and rationale for what he says are major cost increases in the project.
The top USAID official for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Donald L. Larry Sampler, said the inspector general’s letter used the wrong number for his initial calculation and that the estimates derived from that are also much too high…
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The electrification program for southern Afghanistan does not depend on replacing the turbines at Kajaki.
There are two generators operating at Kajaki. The contract let by USAID was to improve the efficiency of the two turbines already installed, and install the third turbine. Then to repair and replace the transmission lines between Kajaki and the new substation at Durai Junction.
The contractor accomplished the rehab of the two turbines previously installed. They built the substation at Durai Junction. They inventoried the third generator.
However, USAID then gave the job of installing the third generator to the USA COE (which lobbied hard for the job). USA COE fiddled around and then said, because the Marine presence at Kajaki was not going to continue, the security of the project site was untenable because of the cost of security and the fact that USA COE was going to be forced to use the APPF (USA COE was scared out of their wits about having to use the APPF).
USAID then gave the money to the Afghans to finish the project.
The power transmission lines from Kajaki to Helmand and Kandahar provinces have rarely been targeted by the Taliban because the Taliban tax the people on the power they use. It is a steady income stream for them.
The third turbine is sitting at Kajaki. There was an inventory done on what was there/missing/needed to be procured in 2011/2012.
There has been a great deal of money spent on this project. But a complete waste it is not.
Working in Afghanistan is not like working in Kansas.
The logic of continuing this project is bizarre. The electrification program depends on replacing the turbines @ Kajaki, the replacement equipment has been there since September 2008 and citing violence the Chinese contractors withdrew.
If nothing has happened since then, when there were ISAF and GIRoA troops present, why would progress now happen? Even if GIRoA made security @ Kijaki Dam a priority and the turbine was installed, let alone a promised third turbine, there is the problem of securing the power transmission lines within Helmand and Kandahar Provinces.
Incidentally where is that third turbine USAID? Maybe @ Kandahar or still in the Chinese factory?
What a complete waste of money.