WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Defense Department did little to investigate the background of a $2 billion fuel contract to feed the energy needs of the Afghan war, a report finds.
A U.S. congressional subcommittee found the Pentagon didn't research Mina Corp., a company charged with supplying fuel to a U.S. military base in Kyrgyzstan.
"Despite two ongoing investigations into serious allegations of corruption, significant political and diplomatic fallout in Kyrgyzstan, and the companies' unusual behavior and hyper-secrecy, the U.S. government knew little about who the companies were or how they operated," the 75-page report found.
The report said the Pentagon had a "single-minded focus" on fuel contracts meant to support the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. Defense officials, however, failed to look into the diplomatic and political consequences of its contracts.
"Real and perceived corruption in the fuel contracts has now been linked to two revolutions and seriously strained U.S.-Kyrgyz relations," the report found.
There was no evidence, however, that the family of former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev benefited from the contracts despite claims to that effect from Bishkek.
