"From the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR):
Today, SIGAR released an audit of U.S.-funded salary payments for the Afghan National Police (ANP), which total $1.3 billion.
The audit found:
--The U.S. is spending over $300 million annually for ANP salaries with little assurance that these funds are going to active police personnel or that the amounts paid are correct.
--There are almost twice as many ANP identification cards in circulation as there are active police personnel.
--After 9 years of effort, an electronic human resources system has still not been successfully implemented.
--Reports have disclosed inflated police rosters, payments being made to more police personnel than are authorized in particular locations, and police personnel receiving inflated salaries.
--20% of ANP personnel are at risk of not receiving their full salaries because they are paid in cash by an MOI-appointed trusted agent, where as much as half of these payments are possibly diverted.
--U.S. officials confirmed that over the past year they accepted, without question, all personnel totals provided by the Afghan Ministry of Interior (MOI).
--UNDP's independent monitoring agent may have artificially inflated the percentage of successfully verified ANP personnel from 59% to as much as 84%.
--As U.S. forces draw down, the U.S. government will have increasingly limited visibility over ANP data collection processes.
--Unless the MOI develops the capability to ensure and verify the accuracy of ANP personnel and payroll data, there is a significant risk that a large portion of the over $300 million in annual U.S. funding for ANP salaries will be wasted or abused."
As Diana West says, "I don't know about you, but I'm shocked, shocked."
This doesn't sound like a nation wanting democracy to me.
** Rich Lowry, Nov 30, 2014 on “Meet the Press” Sunday, National Review editor
Stop trying to make the Ferguson protests something they weren’t. And, just as importantly, stop trying to make Michael Brown, the man shot to death during a fight with police Office Darren Wilson in August, something he wasn’t.
“If you look at the most credible evidence, the lessons are really basic ... don’t rob a convenience store. Don’t fight with a policeman when he stops you and try to take his gun. And when he yells at you to stop, just stop.”