Congress-appointed auditor tells panel he’s ‘not getting cooperation’ from Biden administration in tracking how billions for Afghan assistance is being spent.
Since the United States’ abrupt August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan—a chaotic departure scarred by suicide bombings that killed 180 people, including 13 American service members—the nation’s taxpayers have funneled $2.5 billion in humanitarian assistance for the impoverished country to international nonprofits.
No one knows how that money is being spent except, likely, the leaders of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban.
And, apparently, that’s acceptable with the Biden administration and its State Department, which has resisted efforts by an Inspector General cadre in 2008 to track Afghan economic assistance allocations.
“The State Department has basically obfuscated, delayed reports … ordered their employees not to talk to us,” Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 14.
“We’ve gone out of our way to work with them but we’re still not getting cooperation,” he added, noting Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West has ignored “countless entreaties to meet” to “share information, learn what’s going on, and what their issues are so we can try to help them.”
The House panel hearing preceded a later Afghanistan-related discussion before the House Foreign Affairs Oversight & Accountability Subcommittee that retraced decisions by the Trump and Biden administrations leading to the Aug. 26, 2021 calamity that ended America’s near-20 year Afghan war. The hearings spanned nearly six hours.
Mr. Sopko, who has led SIGAR since its inception, said, “We do not know, period” how humanitarian assistance is being used but evidence from multiple sources, including USAID, indicates “the Taliban is diverting or otherwise benefiting” while intended beneficiaries are not.
“Many would like to believe we are aiding Afghan people while successfully bypassing the Taliban. This can be viewed as a useful fiction, as it ignores the fact that it’s impossible to entirely bypass the Taliban regime,” he said.
Because the United States does not recognize the Taliban-led Afghan government, it allocates humanitarian aid through international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies.
By John Haughey
