Inquiry Letter: DOD Anti/Counter-Corruption Efforts
Abstract
Numerous surveys, audits, legal proceedings, and reports from Afghan, international, and U.S. experts and organizations have identified corruption as one of the most serious obstacles to there construction effort. In fact, the February 2014 Joint and Coalition Operational Analysis report, issued in response to your offices request to examine the threat posed by corruption in Afghanistan, bluntly warned that corruption alienates key elements of the population, discredits the government and security forces, undermines international support, subverts state functions and rule of law, robs the state of revenue, and creates barriers to economic growth. In short, corruption directly threatens the viability and legitimacy of the Afghan State.1Although the United States has not had a comprehensive strategy to guide its anti/countercorruption activities in Afghanistan, U.S. military agencies did establish various task forces to try to understand and counter the pervasive corruption in that country. For example, in 2010, the Department of Defense established Task Force 2010 in an effort to ensure that U.S.-funded contracts did not support the insurgency, and it created Task Force Shafafiy at to focus on the intersection of corruption with the narcotics trade and the insurgency. While creating and supporting these task forces was difficult, given the many competing military demands throughout Afghanistan, they were an essential step toward addressing a major problem that threatens to undermine the entire reconstruction effort in Afghanistan.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 31, 2014
- Accession Number
- AD1140258
Entities
People
- John Sopko
Organizations
- Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction