GAO report criticises U.S. reimbursements to Pakistan

07:18 GMT, June 25, 2008 A Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit unveils a lack of oversight and accountability for U.S. reimbursements to Pakistan. It furthermore raises doubts that these designated Coalition Support Funds (CSF) were used for their proper purpose to combat terrorists at the Afghan border.

The United States has reimbursed Pakistan, one of its key allies in the global war on terror, about $5.56 billion in CSF since 2001. The U.S. Department of Defense provides CSF to 27 coalition partners for costs incurred in direct support of U.S. military operations. Pakistan is by far the largest recipient of CSF, receiving 81 percent of all CSF reimbursements as of May 2008.

In this context the GAO report found that the United States recently reimbursed Pakistan with more than $200 million for air defence radars without investigating whether this amount was stipulated in CSF guidance or not.

"The U.S. government is being asked to reimburse Pakistan for non-incremental air defence radar maintenance when Al Qaeda is not even known to have an air force,” Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee stated yesterday. "The purpose of these funds is to support the fight against extremists, not to boost Pakistan's conventional warfare capability."

Another example included $30 million for army road construction and $15 million for bunker construction without evidence that any road or bunker has been built. "As a result, we conclude that the Defense Department cannot accurately determine how much of the $5.56 billion in costs reimbursed to Pakistan since 2001 were actually incurred," the report says.

A DoD statement responding to the report mentions that GAO did not give sufficient weight to Pakistan's substantial contributions to the war on terrorism: “As of October 2007, approximately 40 percent of fuel and 84 percent of all containerized cargo for delivery to coalition forces operating in Afghanistan passed through Pakistan. Pakistan’s cooperation in facilitating this support is a critical component of the coalition’s ability to operate in Afghanistan. (...) Without the CSF authority or a similar mechanism to reimburse Pakistan for its level of effort in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), it is unlikely that Pakistan would have the financial capacity to deploy and maintain sizable military forces in the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and other locations along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to support U.S. and International Security Assitance Force (ISAF) military operations in Afghanistan.”

“The cost of Pakistan to these operations, in human terms, have been significant. Approximately 1.400 Pakistani security forces members have lost their lives since 2001 in global war on terror. Since July 2007, over 700 Pakistanis have been killed by suicide bombings. CSF reimbursements to Pakistan have been a significant factor in Pakistan’s ability to assist U.S. operations in global war on terror,“ the Defense Department further comments.

GAO agreed in its conclusion that the programme was crucial, but also emphasizes that the Defense Department did not consistently apply its existing CSF oversight guidance and that certain deficiencies existed in Defense’s oversight procedures.

According to a “Gulf Times” article published last week the United States recently released a pending $500 million CSF payment to Pakistan. “I cannot confirm when would it reach, but it’s coming” US embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton is quoted, adding that the amount of instalment had been deposited in Pakistan’s account in the New York Bank.

Pakistan did not receive any payments related to the CSF in the past three months. The United States stopped the reimbursements due to the GAO audit, the newspaper reports. 
 

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