President Trump’s campaign stumped the “rebuild America’s roads, bridges, and airports, Governor’s across the country met with the president last week seeking government money and suggesting some regulations could be eliminated to begin work throughout America.
A new report from Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) highlighted spending flaws with building roads in Afghanistan, not America. The tribal nation was supposed to construct a 233-kilometer highway named “Afghanistan’s Ring Road between Qeysar and Laman,” to connect the sparsely populated country. Starting in 2006, five separate grants from the Asian Development Bank and America totaling $721 million were given to Afghanistan politicians to build the road. Unfortunately, the Middle East and especially Afghanistan is riddled with corruption, and the money is gone—in other words, no highway.
SIGAR’s review found several red flags, many have taxpayers’ heads shaking and wondering if the Trump administration will stop the appropriated money to a nation that continues to suffer incompetence and corruption.
“As of September 2017, the Afghan Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) had disbursed $249 million of the ADF grant funds to build this 233-kilometer section of road, but contractors had only achieved 15 percent construction progress, SIGAR’s John Sopko said. “From March 2014 through September 2017, no physical progress was made on the Qeysar and Laman route. This delay almost certainly eroded much of the limited work that had been completed prior to that period.”
The report highlighted that the development has been plagued “by security challenges, poor contractor performance, and a lack of capacity within the MoPW to manage large construction contracts. These issues led to repeated failed efforts and the termination of two contracts for the construction of the road.”
Sopko cited personal safety as a top concern for contractors attempting to complete the highway. “In November 2008, three local staff of an engineering consulting firm were abducted, and one was killed. In February 2009, work was suspended at the site due to security concerns, and 16 subcontractor employees were abducted just a little over a month later.”
Another contract was terminated after no paved roads were constructed and design work was incomplete after nearly three years. Despite receiving approximately 46 percent of the contract’s value, only 15 percent of the work was completed. The report disclosed that the endeavor failed to pay its subcontractors more than $25.5 million!
Once the research was completed SIGAR concluded: “We remain unconvinced that the security situation, even with a change in contractor’s security posture, is somehow now more manageable, given that the percentage of districts under insurgent control or influence has doubled since 2015. While we hope for success, we are left without any indication that the circumstances have improved sufficiently to warrant a high degree of confidence that the project will be completed, that more money will not be wasted, or that more security incidents will not occur.”
Meanwhile, US taxpayers and governors continue to wait, hoping Congress will recognize the rebuilding efforts in war-torn Afghanistan are fruitless and maybe, just maybe they can redirect that money to fix the roads in America.
theKDreport.com 