© 2024
NPR for Northern Colorado
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Report: U.S. And Allies Don't Know How Many Afghan Police Are On The Job

After nine years and more than $500 million in U.S taxpayers' funds, and another $700 million or so from other nations, Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior "cannot determine the actual number of personnel that work" for the country's National Police, the U.S. Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Restruction reported today.

And, writes NPR's Tom Bowman, "Special Inspector General Herbert Richardson told a Washington hearing that until there are adequate records systems, there will continue to be a significant risk of fraud and waste of those funds."

In one Afghan province, Tom tells us, "investigators found that nearly 2,700 more police were paid than were assigned to the force."

C-SPAN.org has video of Richardson's testimony before the Commission on Wartime Contracting posted online here.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.