McCaskill Slams "outrageous, wasteful' $43 Million Afghan Alternative Fuel Station, Calls on Pentagon to Account for Taxpayer Money Lost
Statement
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today slammed the "outrageous, wasteful" construction of a $43 million alternative fuel station in Afghanistan that should have cost $500,000 or less, and the Pentagon's inability to document to its top watchdog in Afghanistan whether the station is now operational--and is demanding answers from the Department of Defense.
"There are few things in this job that literally make my jaw drop," said McCaskill, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee. "But of all the examples of wasteful projects in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Pentagon began prior to our wartime contracting reforms, this genuinely shocked me. It's hard to imagine a more outrageous waste of money than building an alternative fuel station in a war-torn country that costs 8,000 percent more than it should, and is too dangerous for a watchdog to verify whether it is even operational. Perhaps equally outrageous however, is that the Pentagon has apparently shirked its responsibility to fully account for the taxpayer money that's been wasted--an unacceptable lack of transparency that I'll be thoroughly investigating."
McCaskill, a former Missouri State Auditor, today penned a letter to Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter demanding the Pentagon provide a full accounting of the project, including the top officials associated with it, feasibility studies, and other documents, much of which the Pentagon claimed they were unable to provide to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the military's top watchdog in the country.
"The cost of this facility appears to have ballooned far beyond a reasonable estimate, " McCaskill wrote in the letter. " It also appears that the Department began this particular project without conducting adequate planning I am particularly troubled by SIGAR's account of its difficulty in obtaining information regarding the [compressed natural gas] facility. The [Task Force for Stability and Business Operations], which was given approximately $822 million to encourage private investment and development in Afghanistan and reported directly to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, apparently ceased all operations on March 31, 2015. SIGAR has requested the production of documents and to interview personnel that were within TFBSO, but the Defense Department has indicated that because of TFBSO's closure, the Department no longer possesses the personnel with expertise to respond to SIGAR's requests."
McCaskill recently demanded answers and accountability from the Pentagon on another SIGAR investigation of waste in Afghanistan--a 64,000 square foot facility at Camp Leatherneck that was never used or occupied. SIGAR found that the Pentagon had initially requested funds for the $36 million facility during the Afghanistan troop surge in 2010. However, the regional commander in charge at that time requested the facility not be built because it was unnecessary. The request to cancel the building was rejected by a senior Army officer who believed it would not be "prudent" to cancel a project for which funds had already been appropriated by Congress.
McCaskill has led a successful effort to end hundreds of millions in taxpayer spending on unsustainable overseas projects, bringing those resources home, and increasing accountability for the remaining U.S.-Afghan projects. Last year's annual defense bill included McCaskill's plan to prohibit taxpayer funding from use by the Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund, and to prohibit unsustainable projects that cannot be overseen by American personnel. During her first term in the Senate, McCaskill waged a successful six-year battle to rein in wasteful wartime contracting practices in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ultimately passed into law the most expansive reforms to wartime contracting practices since World War II.
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