SIGAR's Lessons Learned Program and Lessons from the Long War

Abstract

In 2008, Congress created SIGAR to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in the U.S. reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. Why? Because we were spending more money in Afghanistan on reconstruction than we spent under the Marshall Plan to rebuild all of Europe after World War II and Congress felt they needed a dedicated and specialized agency to protect the taxpayers investment, which now totals over $136 billion. Like all other Inspectors General, SIGAR has both auditing and law enforcement responsibilities but, unlike the other 73 federal inspectors general, SIGAR is not housed within any one government agency. This means we have the unique ability to oversee any federal agency that has played a role in the Afghanistan reconstruction effort. To date, we have published nearly 600 audits, inspections, and other reports that have resulted in cost savings to the taxpayer of over $3 billion and convicted over 130 individuals for misconduct related to reconstruction. This includes seven lessons learned reports, which Id like to take a moment to discuss.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 31, 2020
Accession Number
AD1104692

Entities

People

  • John Sopko

Organizations

  • Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Afghanistan
  • Agreements
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of State
  • Education
  • Governments
  • Health Services
  • International Organizations
  • Law
  • Law Enforcement
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Strategy
  • Money
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Nongovernmental Organizations
  • President (United States)
  • Public Policy
  • Second World War
  • Security
  • Training
  • United States
  • War

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.