Security Assistance: Taxpayer Funds Spent on Equipment That Was Never Shipped to Yemen
Abstract
Yemen has been an important partner in the fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a terrorist group based in Yemen that continues to plot against U.S. citizens and interests. To assist in countering the AQAP threat, the Department of State (State) committed $48 million of the $108 million allocated in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) funding from fiscal year 2007 through fiscal year 2014 to Yemen.1 Senate Report 133-176, accompanying S.2410, Carl Levin National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, included a provision for us to review U.S. security assistance to Yemen. During the course of our review on the timeliness and maintenance of security assistance to Yemen in response to this provision, we became aware of shipments of U.S.-funded security assistance equipment that were transferred to Yemen but remain in a U.S. warehouse. 2 This report describes (1) the status of U.S. FMF-funded equipment for Yemen that remains in a private warehouse in Virginia and (2) the steps the Department of Defense (DOD) has taken to resolve the final disposition of the equipment. To prepare this report, we interviewed U.S. officials from DOD, State, and the U.S. embassy in Yemen, and a representative from Yemen s most recent freight forwarder regarding the status of the unshipped FMF equipment, the discussions between Yemen and its freight forwarders over fees and documentation, and U.S. government efforts to achieve final disposition. 3 We conducted this performance audit from May 2015 to July 2015 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 15, 2015
- Accession Number
- ADA621559
Entities
People
- Brian Hackney
- Charles M. Johnson Jr.
- Jason Bair
- Katherine L Forsyth
- Lynn Cothern
- Mark Dowling
- Martin de Alteriis
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office