KABUL, Afghanistan, May 20 (UPI) -- Only one person is overseeing a massive, $404 million Afghan reconstruction contract -- and is thousands of miles away in Maryland, auditors say.
In a report that suggests Washington is facing the same kinds of problems with reconstruction oversight in Afghanistan as it did in Iraq, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction says the contract let by the American command responsible for training Afghan security forces isn't being properly supervised, The Christian Science Monitor reported Wednesday.
The contract's supervising officer in Maryland hired someone else to work in Afghanistan, but that person didn't have much experience and wasn't able to visit many of the actual work sites, the audit said.
The problem with Afghan reconstruction is that there simply isn't enough money to hire enough people to oversee all the work being done, the Monitor said.
"It's a reflection of the dynamics of reconstruction not unlike those that we have seen in Iraq, where it takes an abundance of funds, considerable numbers of people … necessary to ensure that the taxpayer dollar is being used for the purposes for which it was appropriated," said Arnold Fields, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.
