US aid vetting failures may have benefited militants in Afghanistan, watchdog finds
PHOTO CAPTION: A Taliban fighter is seen at the Taliban flag-raising ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 31, 2022. REUTERS/Ali Khara
By Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two State Department bureaus could not prove compliance with internal policies for vetting aid groups in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan that received $293 million in funds, raising a risk that extremists may have profited, a U.S. watchdog said on Wednesday.
"It is critical that State knows who is actually benefitting from this assistance in order to prevent the aid from being diverted to the Taliban or other sanctioned parties," said the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report.
The Taliban, the report said, has tried to obtain U.S. aid funds "through several means, including the establishment of humanitarian organizations," underscoring the need for the department to "fully and consistently assess the risks posed by its implementing partners."
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
SIGAR said three of five State Department bureaus were found in compliance with department regulations requiring vetting of aid fund recipients.
But the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs could not provide enough documentation to prove their adherence.
"State could not demonstrate compliance with its partner vetting requirements on awards that disbursed at least $293 million in Afghanistan," it continued.
For that reason, "there is an increased risk that terrorists and terrorist-affiliated individuals and entities may have illegally benefitted," it said.
The department agreed with the report's conclusions and would "work to ensure compliance" with vetting requirements, it said.
The U.S. remains the largest aid donor to impoverished Afghanistan nearly three years after the Taliban seized Kabul as the last U.S. troops completed a chaotic pullout following 20 years of war with the Islamist militants.
Since the U.S. withdrawal was completed on Aug. 30, 2021, Washington has provided more than $17.9 billion in assistance to Afghanistan.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
