USA Spends $43 Million To Build Gas Station In Afghanistan


 

Recent reports indicate that the Downstream Gas Utilization project was way over budget by a shocking 8,000 percent and now something is finally being done to hold those accountable for this waste of money.

Sadly its business as usual in Washington and John Sopko, a special inspector general for the reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan is calling out the Department of Defense for how they handled this project while also saying that it “outrages the taxpayer”.

 “I have never in my lifetime seen the Department of Defense or any government agency clam up and claim they don’t know anything about a program,” said Sopko. “Who’s in charge? Why won’t they talk? We have received more allegations about this program than we have received about any other program in Afghanistan.”

American’s have a right to know how tax money is being spent, especially for reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan but it’s unlikely that we will ever find out the truth regarding reconstruction projects there because the Task Force for Stability and Business Operations which was supposed to be in charge of monitoring how money was spent in Afghanistan is no longer in existence since it was officially closed in March of this year.

 “The closure of TFBSO in March 2015 and departure of all its employees have resulted in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) no longer possessing the personnel expertise to address these questions,” said Brian McKeon, the principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy at the DOD in response to questions from Sopko last June.

Sopko has said that SIGAR has been tipped off to scores of corruption allegations within the TFBSO, however efforts to find more information have been met with road blocks from the DOD. According to Fox News, Joseph Catalino, former head of the task force, still works for the department as a senior official, however to the DOD maintains that they don’t have any information on the gas station project. They apparently don’t even know if the station is still operational, despite being built in 2011, reports NBC News.

Source: Daily Caller

 

 

 



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