Trump wants to stay in Afghanistan, so he needs to halt massive taxpayer abuse

America’s longest war is also the nation’s biggest boondoggle. And if President Donald Trump is intent on keeping the U.S. military involved in the 16-year quagmire, he’d better find a way to stop the Defense Department’s massive taxpayer abuses.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that the Pentagon shelled out more than $50 million for salaries and luxury items for the employees shady British firm hired to train Afghan intelligence agents.

The questionable spending was first noticed by Sen. Clair McCaskill, who is now demanding answers.

Here’s a little background from Judicial Watch:

A foreign company hired by the U.S. government to mentor and train Afghan intelligence officers billed Uncle Sam for more than $50 million in luxury cars — including Porsches, an Aston Martin, and a Bentley — and the lucrative salaries of executives and their spouses (who didn’t do any work). The firm also spent $1,500 on alcohol and $42,000 on automatic weapons prohibited under the terms of the contract, according to figures provided by a U.S. Senator from a federal audit that has not been released to the public. It marks the latest of many scandals involving the free-flow of American dollars to controversial causes in Afghanistan, where fraud and corruption are rampant in all sectors.

In this latest case, the Department of Defense (DOD) hired a British firm called New Century Consulting (NCC) to operate a program called “Legacy East” that was supposed to provide counterinsurgency intelligence experts to mentor and train Afghan National Security Forces. Instead, NCC billed the Pentagon millions of dollars in questionable or unallowable expenses, including seven luxury cars and exorbitant $400,000 average salaries for the “significant others” of corporate officers to serve as “executive assistants.” Other prohibited expenses include severance payments, rent, unnecessary licensing fees, extensive austerity pay, and the cost of personal air travel. The outrageous figures became public when the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Claire McCaskill, wrote a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis demanding answers. As a federal lawmaker McCaskill had access to the information after viewing a report from the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), which provides financial oversight of government contracts for the Pentagon and operates under the Secretary of Defense.

McCaskill discloses that the British firm continued receiving lucrative DOD contracts despite having “many previous problems,” involving billing and performance practices. The senator also questions why the Pentagon kept pouring money into a “troubled” program that a separate federal audit had determined was likely ineffective. That assessment, made by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), came after investigators found that a lack of performance metrics makes it nearly impossible to assess whether the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the mentoring and training programs for Afghan intel personnel are effective. “Despite all of the listed issues with NCC’s performance and billing practices, the Army continued to engage in contracting with NCC for sensitive work in Afghanistan,” McCaskill states in her letter to Mattis.

Trump this week said the American mission in Afghanistan is no longer nation building, but killing terrorists.

If that’s true, he needs to back the words up with actions eliminating costly, and massively ineffective, U.S. efforts to improve infrastructure within the nation.

Because every day that passes with U.S. boots on the ground in Afghanistan, the American taxpayer is getting hosed by Pentagon programs that do little more than line the pockets of top executives within the global military-industrial complex.

The topic of wasteful and suspect government spending in Afghanistan is one we’ve followed closely over the years.

Lawmakers to Pentagon: Goats, carpets and jewelry helped Afghanistan how?

Lawmakers to Pentagon: Goats, carpets and jewelry helped Afghanistan how?

Lawmaker probes Pentagon’s Afghan fun money

Don’t let them fool you: Wasteful military spending is alive and well

Fifteen years into the Afghan War, do Americans know the truth?

American Tax Dollars Used To Buy Russian Helicopters For Afghans… Who Aren’t Trained To Fly Them

As American infrastructure crumbles, taxpayers built $40 million gas station in Afghanistan

This report on Afghanistan will make you sick

Watchdog accuses Pentagon of evading questions on $800 million Afghanistan program

Military spending oversight, not increases, should be top priority for candidates

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