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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Tuesday said that the U.S. is not doing enough to make sure funds sent to Pakistan to help that country fight terrorism are actually used for that purpose. “Our assessment found that while [Coalition Support Funds (CSF)] played a key role in Pakistan’s support for our war on terror, [the Department of Defense] had not followed its existing guidance and provided little oversight of the effort at the embassy in Pakistan,” the GAO found. “As a result, we conclude that Defense cannot accurately determine how much of the $5.56 billion in costs reimbursed to Pakistan since 2001 were actually incurred,” the report stated. Democrats seized on the findings. “It seems as though the Pakistani military went on a spending spree with American taxpayers’ wallets and no one bothered to investigate the charges. To this day we do not have proper verification for how our money was used,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). “How hard would it have been to confirm that a road we paid $15 million for was ever built? It is appalling that the Defense Department did not send any embassy officials working in Pakistan to verify these enormous costs.” Added Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.): “Apparently, the Bush administration cares so little about the hunt for Osama bin Laden that it is barely paying attention to how the Pakistani military is carrying out the fight. It’s dangerous to treat the battle against al Qaeda so casually, and it’s unfair to American taxpayers to be so careless with billions of their dollars.” The GAO recommends that the Pentagon “should consistently implement its own CSF guidance to fully verify Pakistani claims and ensure the effective use of CSF in meeting key U.S. national security goals.” |
