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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMilitary blew $43M on useless gas station
WASHINGTON U.S. taxpayers footed the bill for a $42 million natural-gas filling station in Afghanistan, a boondoggle that should have cost $500,000 and has virtually no value to average Afghans, the government watchdog for reconstruction in Afghanistan announced Monday.
A Pentagon task force awarded a $3 million contract to build the station in Sheberghan, Afghanistan, but ended up spending $12 million in construction costs and $30 million in "overhead" between 2011 and 2014, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found. Meanwhile, similar gas station was built in neighboring Pakistan cost $500,000.
"It's hard to imagine a more outrageous waste of money than building an alternative fuel station in a war-torn country that costs 8,000% more than it should, and is too dangerous for a watchdog to verify whether it is even operational," Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said in a statement. "Perhaps equally outrageous however, is that the Pentagon has apparently shirked its responsibility to fully account for the taxpayer money that's been wasted an unacceptable lack of transparency that I'll be thoroughly investigating."
The compressed-natural gas station was designed to show the viability of tapping the country's natural gas reserves. But the inspector general determined that Pentagon's Task Force for Stability and Business Operations failed to conduct a feasibility study before launching the project.
If they had, the inspector general noted in his report, the Pentagon would have found that it would have little value for most Afghans. The Pentagon's own contractor stated that conversion to compressed natural gas costs $700 per car in Afghanistan. The average annual income there is $690.
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/11/02/pentagon-afghanistan-gas-station-boondoggle/75037032/
lpbk2713
(42,766 posts)They have find ways to spend money foolishly so that they can take money away from
foolish projects if they need it and so that they can keep getting big appropriations.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)I'm just comparing some of the Great Boondoggles Of History.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)And when the wars go on forever, that's profits without end. Amen.
erronis
(15,328 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)Initech
(100,099 posts)LuckyLib
(6,819 posts)a war-torn country that needs basic development and infrastructure. Where do these Pentagon types get these stupid ideas?
TexasBushwhacker
(20,210 posts)At the very least, if a project is approved for $500K, it should cost $500K. The government should require a completion bond be purchased by the contractor. That's the way it's done in the private sector. Why should the US government require any less?
WDIM
(1,662 posts)That goes unpunished daily.
Just look the other way. nothing to see here.
We are the mega-rich laws do not apply to us!
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Response to n2doc (Original post)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)I am sure all taxpayers are rightfully outraged, and am as sure the very taxpayer concerned GOP controlled Congress will be outraged and shouting for an investigation.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Add this to the list.
retrowire
(10,345 posts)It pumps gas doesn't it?
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)You know, "overhead."
The whole war is a fucking boondoggle.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)of wasting our money.