Failed Afghan projects swallowed up U.S. cash

The rapid collapse of Afghanistan's government to the Taliban fueled fears of a humanitarian disaster, sparked a political crisis for President Joe Biden and caused scenes of desperation at Kabul's airport.

It's also raised questions about what happened to more than $1 trillion the U.S. spent trying to bring peace and stability to a country wracked by decades of war.

While most of that money went to the U.S. military, billions of dollars got wasted along the way, in some cases aggravating efforts to build ties with the Afghan people Americans were meant to be helping.

A special watchdog set up by Congress spent the past 13 years documenting the successes and failures of America's efforts in Afghanistan.

Here are 10 projects that the U.S. watchdog -- the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction -- identified as wasted effort:

• $549 million planes sold as scrap: An effort to build up an Afghan air force included spending at least $549 million for 20 refurbished Italian-made G222 aircraft. But 16 of the planes were left languishing in the weeds of Kabul's international airport after persistent maintenance issues made them unflyable.

They were eventually sold as scrap for 6 cents a pound, or $32,000. The Justice Department in May 2020 told the watchdog that "it was not going to prosecute the criminal and civil cases related to the failed G222 aircraft program" so "as a result, no one will be held accountable."

• Road to nowhere: The U.S. Agency for International Development spent $176 million to build a 63-mile road between Gardez city and Khost province. Less than a month after it was finished, Watchdog inspectors found that five segments were destroyed and portions of two other segments had washed away, according to an October 2016 audit.

• Woodland camouflage: The U.S. spent as much as $28 million buying uniforms for the Afghan military with camouflage patterns that didn't match the arid environment. But Pentagon officials said the design was chosen because Afghanistan's minister of defense at the time thought it looked good.

In a memo to the force that year, then-Defense Secretary James Mattis said "rather than minimize this report or excuse wasteful decisions, I expect all [Defense Department] organizations to use this error as a catalyst to bring to light wasteful practices."

• "Melting buildings": The U.S. spent $500,000 with an Afghan contractor in May 2012 to construct a training range for the Afghan special police training center in Logar province. It was designed to replicate a typical Afghan village and be used for conducting simulated search-and-clearance exercises.

But inspectors found that water had begun penetrating the walls within four months of the U.S. taking control of the training range. Bricks used in the construction had too much sand, and too little clay, and began to erode.

• War on drugs: Afghanistan has long been the world's top producer of opium poppies. Besides its human toll, the Afghan drug trade was seen as undermining reconstruction and security goals by financing insurgent groups, fueling government corruption and eroding state legitimacy.

Over a 15-year period, the U.S. spent about $8.6 billion on Afghan counternarcotics efforts. Still, by 2017, poppy cultivation and opium production reached record highs.

• Power transmission failure: Inspectors found that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mismanaged a $116 million contract with an Afghan company to build a power station to provide electricity to more than 1 million Afghans.

The mismanagement resulted in the U.S. spending almost $60 million on a project that wasn't operational "because land-acquisition and right-of-way issues have not been resolved, and there was no contract provision to permanently connect the system to a power source," the watchdog reported in March 2018.

Auditors found the system might also be "structurally unsound and pose a risk" to Afghans who live near transmission towers and lines, or worked in a nearby substation.

• Empty headquarters: The U.S. military spent $36 million on a 64,000-square foot command-and-control facility at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province that had a war room, a briefing theater and enough office space for 1,500 people.

"It appears to be the best constructed building I have seen in my travels in Afghanistan," an inspector wrote in July 2013. "Unfortunately, it is unused, unoccupied, and presumably will never be used for its intended purpose."

• Hotel shell: The special watchdog found "serious deficiencies in the management and oversight" of $85 million in loans made by the Overseas Private Investment Corp. for the construction of a 209-room hotel and adjacent 150-room Kabul Grand Residences apartment building, directly across from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

A November 2016 review found the hotel and the apartment building were incomplete, abandoned empty shells, and both loans were in default.

• Unused military camp: The Pentagon spent $3.7 million to construct a camp near the Turkmenistan border for the Afghan army. Despite being partially ready for use at the time of the assessment in 2013, it remained unused with "all essential areas -- such as the administration building, latrines, and firing ranges -- empty."

A Pentagon official told investigators that the camp was not used because it lacked a dining facility.

• Afghanistan's military? The U.S. spent about $83 billion over nearly 20 years trying to stand up a force that could fight the Taliban and guarantee Afghanistan's stability. But the Taliban rebuilt strength and the Afghan military collapsed in weeks as the U.S. pulled out. Even U.S. military leaders seemed stunned by the militants' advance.

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