Photos: Excerpts from SIGAR’s catalog of waste in Afghanistan

Tilted columns at Justice Center in Parwan Courthouse, January 2012. An October 2013 report investigating the $10 million project discovered poor construction, cracks in the concrete and rebar wound with wire instead of being welded, which could lead to structural failure. SIGAR

Mold on the ceiling of the Archi Police District headquarters, November 2012. SIGAR reported during a November 2012 inspection that the facility was “in a state of disrepair, with an estimated 40 Afghan National Police personnel living and working in facilities with extensive mold” and that neither the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers nor Afghan officials knew who constructed the buildings. SIGAR

Tables inside an unused $34 million command and control center, May 2013. In a July 2013 letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, SIGAR Special Inspector General John Sopko wrote that work continued on this 64,000-square-foot facility through 2013 even though “military commanders in Afghanistan determined as early as May 2010 that there was no need” for it. SIGAR

Storage of irrigation pumps, December 2011. A SIGAR alert from June 2013 noted that USAID approved the contractor, IRD (International Relief and Development), to spend more than $23 million to obtain 16,000 irrigation pumps, but that “neither USAID nor IRD officials were able to explain" how they determined that Helmand province needed them all. SIGAR

Non-inventoried Afghan National Army vehicle spare parts in a depot at Camp Hero in southern Afghanistan, December 2011. SIGAR noted in an October 2013 audit that the ANA did not maintain accurate records of vehicle spare parts, parts availability and future requirements to minimize spare-parts shortages, though it did continue “to place orders for vehicle spare parts without demand or usage data.” SIGAR

Shoddy construction at Bathkhak School, January 2013. A July 2013 SIGAR report noted that the contractor on this $262,000 project “freely substituted building materials without U.S. government approval. For example, brick instead of cinder block was used for the walls and a concrete slab ceiling was installed instead of a wood-trussed roofing system,” raising serious safety issues, as the “school is located in an area of high seismic activity.” SIGAR