KABUL, Afghanistan
By Shahdi Khan Saif
Sixteen transport aircraft that the U.S. bought for millions of dollars for the Afghan Air Force have been scrapped for only a few thousand dollars, an unclassified letter of a U.S. watchdog revealed Friday.
The information was revealed in an unclassified letter of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, which is an American watchdog that monitors the use of U.S. taxpayer’s money in Afghanistan.
The letter was sent to the U.S. authorities demanding answers about the aircraft.
Most of the C-27 transport aircraft, also known as the G222, were given to the Afghanistan military as part of a "failed" $486 million Department of Defense program. The letter said the planes were scrapped for just $32,000. Further, it said the remaining four planes were being stored at the Ramstein Airbase in Germany.
The letter said the planes for the Afghan force were often grounded due to a lack of spare parts. After flight operations ended, the 16 planes sat on the tarmac of the Kabul International Airport until they were recently scrapped by the Defense Logistics Agency.
The scrap material was sold for six cents per pound, wrote John F. Spoko, Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, in an October 3 letter to the Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James.
"I am concerned that officials responsible for planning and executing the scrapping of the planes may not have considered other possible alternatives in order to salvage taxpayer dollars," Spoko wrote.
He asked if the Air Force took any action against the companies responsible for building and maintaining the planes and if the service made any efforts to return the planes for a refund.
The U.S. Department of Defense ended the C-27 program in March 2013 after the Afghans could not maintain the aircraft or find spare parts.
The watchdog launched an investigation in December. It sought clarifications on why the Pentagon did not pursue resale, and why it did not seek a refund from the manufacturer of the Italian-made G222 planes.
The watchdog was created to oversee about $104 billion the U.S. has funneled into rebuilding Afghanistan in the 13-year war with the Taliban and al-Qaeda. It has pointed to hundreds of millions in other wasteful spending in the past.
In July, the auditor similarly questioned plans to begin sending C-130s, a similar type of transport aircraft, to the Afghan Air Force saying there was little evidence the aircraft are needed. Last year, it also urged the department to stop supplying the Afghans Russian-made helicopters.
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