Contractors in Afghanistan are making big money for bad work

A highway that begins crumbling before it is finished. A school with a collapsed roof. A clinic with faulty plumbing. A farmers’ cooperative that farmers can’t use. Afghan police and military that, after training, were incapable of providing the most basic security. And contractors walking away with millions of dollars in aid money for the work. The Bush Administration touted the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan as a success story. Perhaps, in comparison to the violence-plagued efforts in Iraq and the incompetence-riddled efforts on the American Gulf Coast, everything was relative. Afghanistan, Inc., issued by the non-profit organization CorpWatch, details the bungled reconstruction effort in Afghanistan.

“My investigation into corporate fraud in the reconstruction of Afghanistan rang the bell on how corrupt U.S. companies and their Afghan partners were, but I had no idea that it would have a long lasting impact. The report was part of the research Congress used to appoint an oversight body, known as SIGAR, to monitor how American taxpayer money was being spent in Afghanistan.” Fariba Nawa