Small Wars Journal

McCaskill: What’s Being Done to Address Potential $400M Failures in Afghanistan?

Wed, 11/15/2017 - 11:09pm

McCaskill: What’s Being Done to Address Potential $400M Failures in Afghanistan? By Claudia Grisales - Stars & Stripes

A key senator is demanding top administration officials explain why their federal agencies haven’t addressed nearly $400 million in U.S.-funded projects in Afghanistan on the verge of failure.

On Wednesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to explain why more isn’t being done to thwart the costly loss.

The projects range from a 25-mile road in Helmand province to justice centers to power improvements throughout the country, according to a report from a U.S. watchdog group.

The projects were authorized in January 2011 without realistic cost estimates, comprehensive plans for sustainability and a lack of Afghan government resources to support the plans, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, said in its quarterly report issued Oct. 30…

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