WASHINGTON, January 16 (Sputnik) — The US Department of Defense (DoD) neglected to hold a construction contractor accountable for an Afghan police training center that collapsed within months, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said on Thursday.
“Within four months of completion the [Afghan Police] buildings began to disintegrate due to the contractor's use of defective construction methods and materials,” SIGAR Director of Public Affairs, Alex Bronstein-Moffly, said in a press release entitled, “Half a Million Dollar Afghan Police Training Center Melts.”
After inspecting the Afghan Special Police Training Center’s dry fire range, SIGAR accused the DoD of poor oversight and failing to hold the contractor responsible for “structural deficiencies.”
“The buildings deteriorated to the point that it was unsafe and unusable and Afghan authorities are now rebuilding it,” Bronstein-Moffly added. “The facility is not only an embarrassment, but, more significantly, a waste of U.S. taxpayers’ money.”
The United States has appropriated overall $104 billion for relief and reconstruction in Afghanistan since 2002, including over $57 billion targeted to provide Afghan security forces with supplies, training and infrastructure, according to DoD spending figures collected by SIGAR.
In quarterly reports filed throughout 2014, the watchdog organization identified billions of taxpayer dollars wasted on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, including a failed war on opium, investments in transport planes that were never used, poorly-designed prison facilities and mismanagement of funds by the Afghan government.
