US Wastes Billions of Dollars in Afghanistan

Washington, Sep 10. -Billions of dollars from US contributors are wasted in sending diplomats and other civilians to Afghanistan without the adequate comprehension on what the money is used, according to a report here."No organization integrally evaluates these costs, while the figures are still going up," said the Special Inspector General for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and the US Department of State Inspector General in the report, published on Friday.

According to the analysis there are no official mechanisms for financial control.

"Financing was only based in informal communications, such as e-mails and meetings. These conditions increased the risk for the money not to be invested in the right direction, with the scheduled objective," they said.

As an example, the document shows that 3.5 million dollars were transferred by the administration of President Barack Obama to the Department of Transport without the right knowledge on its destination, and they were never used, as told by US TV network CNN.

It is known there is a dramatic increase in the number of US civilians serving in Afghanistan. This number increased from 320 in 2009 to 1,040 in 2011.

Every year, to pay for a US employee in Afghanistan costs between 410,000 and 570,000 dollars, without including the costs for infrastructure and security.

At the end of August, the Commission for War Time Leases revealed that between 31 and 60 billion dollars from the US public funds were wasted in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last decade, because of the lack of contractors, bad planning and corruption.

The conflict in Afghanistan, the largest in which US has been involved, has caused 1,760 casualties to the Pentagon troops, since the start of the invasion in 2001. (Prensa Latina)