KABUL - Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) following its latest report announced that the U.S. government may accidentally be funneling millions of dollars to the very terrorists and insurgents it’s fighting in Afghanistan through sloppy contracting regulations.

SIGAR following its report called, “Contracting With the Enemy” examined the system designed to make sure that the U.S. reconstruction is not providing business for any individuals or groups associated with terrorist or insurgent organizations.

According to the report, “millions of contracting dollars could be diverted to forces seeking to harm U.S. military and civilian personnel in Afghanistan and derail the multi-billion dollar reconstruction effort.”

The report concluded that due “several weaknesses” in the long and complicated process, millions of dollars have been funnelled accidentally to the insurgent groups.

A SIGAR spokesman said $5 million has been paid to contractors affiliated with the Taliban. This might appear to be relatively harmless, but in a country with a per capita GDP of $1,000, this is an enormous amount.

Criticism in the report focuses on Section 841 of the National Defense Authorization Act 2012 and its ambiguous wording. The legislation allows the DOD to discontinue a contract with a company found to have links to Afghan insurgent groups.

Furthermore, information on companies that have been blacklisted under Section 841 is not properly disseminated by the DOD: “CENTCOM [Central Command] began posting Section 841 designations on its public website in January 2013; however, contracting officers and prime contractors are not required to regularly review the information,” the report explained.

The “alarming” findings were greeted with calls for urgent action to mend the weak links in US regulations. (KP)