Counter terror aid: Pentagon blamed for lax accounting

Washington: The United States has paid more than $5 billion (Dh18.3 billion) to reimburse Pakistan for counterterrorism expenses that have often been exaggerated, if not fabricated, according to a US government audit released on Tuesday that blasts the Pentagon for poor management of the programme.

The report concluded that the Pentagon could not account properly for as much as $2 billion in payments to Pakistan over a three-year period between 2004 and 2007.

Auditors uncovered an array of questionable costs, including $45 million for roads and bunkers that might not have been built; $200 million for the operation of air defence systems even though Al Qaida has no known aircraft; and overcharges for meals and vehicles used by Pakistani troops.

Overall, the report by the General Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the Defence Department routinely had covered costs without verifying that they "were valid, actually incurred, or correctly calculated".

Steps to improve scrutiny

The Pentagon has paid about $5.6 billion to Pakistan in counterterrorism reimbursement funds in the nearly seven years since the September 11 terrorist attacks, by far the largest sum paid as part of the programme to a counterterrorism ally.

The audit acknowledges that the Pentagon recently has taken steps to improve its scrutiny of the expense reports submitted by Pakistan. "Up until that point in time we would say that there was not sufficient oversight," said Michael Johnson Jr, director of counterterrorism issues at the GAO and the principal author of the report.

Even now, Johnson said, "We still point out concerns and areas where we think there should be further enhancements (of the Pentagon's oversight of the programme)."

In particular, Johnson pointed to the Pentagon's practice of reimbursing Pakistan without taking into account favourable fluctuations in the exchange rate. By continuing to pay the Islamabad government in dollars even while the US currency has declined, the Pentagon "may have overpaid more than $1.25 million over 12 months," the report said.

The document is the latest in a series of studies to criticise the Bush administration's management of the Coalition Support Funds programme, which was created in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and has doled out billions of dollars to 27 nations.