Afghanistan: U.S. Efforts to Vet Non-U.S. Vendors Need Improvement

Abstract

While DOD's U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has established a vetting cell to vet non-U.S. vendors in Afghanistan to minimize the risk of insurgents or criminal groups using contracts to fund their operations, its current approach for selecting vendors to vet has gaps. For example, vendors with contracts below $100,000 are not routinely vetted. In fiscal year 2010 around three-quarters of the command's new contracts with non-U.S. vendors were below $100,000. Subcontractors are also not routinely vetted. Command officials stated that CENTCOM uses other risk factors to prioritize vendors to vet, such as contracts performed in Taliban strongholds, but these factors have not been documented. While officials stated that the vetting cell was created to vet vendors prior to award, CENTCOM is largely vetting vendors with existing contracts, which means it is likely that there are a large number of new vendors that have not been vetted prior to award and may have to be vetted in the future. Also, the vetting effort now includes some U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vendors. However, the vetting cell was not staffed to accommodate this workload, so it is uncertain how its existing resources will be able to vet vendors in a timely manner. Without accurately defining the universe of contracts that may need to be vetted, adopting a formal risk-based approach that incorporates other risk factors to identify non-U.S. vendors that pose the highest risk, and identifying the resources needed to accomplish this, it is uncertain how the vetting cell will be able to meet the additional workload and achieve its goals.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA544266

Entities

People

  • Carole Coffey
  • Jason Jackson
  • Johana Ayers
  • Laura Czohara
  • Melissa Hermes
  • Natasha Wilder
  • Sally Williamson
  • Timothy Dinapoli
  • Vincent Balloon
  • William M. Solis

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  • United States Government Accountability Office

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