Review Letter: Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Uncovered by SIGAR
Abstract
In response to your request, we calculated the total dollar amount of waste, fraud, and abuse, we have uncovered through our work since SIGAR's inception in 2008 through December 31, 2017. To do this, we reviewed 766 SIGAR products and investigations completed during the period. That body of work examined approximately $52.7 billion of the $126 billion that has been appropriated for Afghanistan reconstruction. The accompanying enclosures include the results of our analysis and explain how we reached our conclusions. In sum, SIGAR has identified up to $15.5 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse, and failed whole-of-government reconstruction efforts (or 29 percent of the $52.7 billion we examined). We used professional judgment to apply the definitions of waste, fraud, and abuse developed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office to SIGAR's published audits, inspections, special projects, and closed investigative cases. Our review of those products identified 643 instances of waste, fraud, and abuse valued between $2.2 billion and $3.5 billion of the reconstruction dollars we examined. In addition, SIGAR found $12 billion spent on two whole-of government reconstruction efforts that appear to have failed and resulted in wasted U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 17, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1139370
Entities
People
- John Sopko
Organizations
- Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction