U.S. taxpayers bought world’s priciest gas station — in Afghanistan

An audit by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction released this past week revealed that a Department of Defense task force to support economic development squandered hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars.

The audit of the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations was first requested in 2016 by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and thenSen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., after it was reported by SIGAR that the TFBSO had spent over $40 million to build “what is likely to be the world’s most expensive gas station” in Afghanistan, as Special Inspector General John Sopko put it.

Appropriated $823 million by the Congress between 2010 and 2014, the TFBSO obligated more than $675 million in contracts in Afghanistan, which were reviewed by SIGAR as part of the audit.

Despite shoddy record keeping by TFBSO, it was apparent to SIGAR that the task force “was unable to accomplish its overall goals” for a number of reasons, including the apparent lack of a clear mission, set of objectives and strategy for more than two years.

The lack of direction, coupled with poor coordination with other agencies, resulted in TFBSO supporting projects out of step with the priorities of other U.S. government stakeholders in Afghanistan. Compounding these problems, the task force provided contracts with ill-defined requirements, which made it difficult to hold contractors accountable, and nearly half the contracts were awarded with little or no competition.

Noting that only $316.3 million went toward contracts directly supporting projects in Afghanistan, while $359.5 million went to indirect and administrative costs, SIGAR found that only 22 percent of contracts met their required deliverables.

Even when projects were completed, lack of planning by TFBSO meant that “oftentimes neither the Afghan government nor the private sector independently sustained or built upon the results.” Unfortunately, that seems to be the story of American involvement in Afghanistan.

With our occupation of Afghanistan approaching two decades, Americans ought to wonder whether it makes sense to continue wasting American tax dollars on an ill-fated nationbuilding project on the other side of the planet.