$36 Million Command and Control Facility at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan: Unwanted, Unneeded, and Unused

Abstract

While visiting Afghanistan in June 2013, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) learned that the Department of Defense (DoD) had constructed a 64,000 square foot command and control facility (the 64K building) at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.1 Senior military officers encouraged the Special Inspector General to investigate the 64K building because they felt it exemplified a larger problem with military construction. According to one informant, the building had never been used and would probably be torn down or transferred to the Afghan government. The Special Inspector General visited the site and found the building to be well-built and newly furnished. However, it was unoccupied; sheets of plastic still covered the furniture. After coordinating with the DoD Inspector General s office in Kabul, SIGAR opened its investigation into the circumstances surrounding construction of the 64K building.2 On July 8, 2013, SIGAR sent a management alert letter to the Secretary of Defense, which noted that DoD had apparently spent over $30 million to construct a building that would never be used. The letter requested answers to several questions concerning the decision to construct the 64K building and whether any action could be taken to mitigate the risk that the facility would ultimately be a total waste of U.S. taxpayer funds.3 In response to SIGAR s letter, DoD revealed that General (GEN) Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., Commander, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A), had ordered an Army Regulation 15-6 (AR 15-6) investigation of the circumstances surrounding construction of the 64K building and that Major General James Richardson would be leading that investigation. DoD also informed SIGAR that upon completion of the investigation, it would respond to SIGAR s request for information.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2015
Accession Number
ADA618111

Entities

Organizations

  • Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Afghanistan
  • Command And Control
  • Congress
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Department Of Defense
  • Electronic Mail
  • Financial Management
  • General Officers
  • Governments
  • Law
  • Management Training
  • Military Personnel
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • United States
  • United States Central Command
  • Web Browsers

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Facility/Structural Engineering.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control