Members of Congress from both parties want the Pentagon to answer for purchasing camouflage for Afghan forces that is the wrong pattern for the region.
Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill voiced her frustration over the potential waste of $28 million in a letter to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), USA Today reports.
“This is a contracting decision that makes you smack your head in frustration,” McCaskill said in a statement. “It’s a prime example of wasting hard-earned taxpayer dollars, and we’ve got to get to the bottom of how this happened.”
SIGAR chief John Sopko will also testify before the House Committee on Armed Services Tuesday to discuss the findings of the report.
The Department of Defense failed to do its “due diligence” in purchasing uniforms that used an expensive proprietary camouflage pattern and did not demonstrate the effectiveness of the pattern, the SIGAR report concluded. Throughout the contracting process, the Pentagon did not “show that the new camouflage pattern did not hinder ANA operations by providing a more clearly visible target to the enemy,” the report found.
“DOD’s lack of due diligence and its decision to purchase [Afghanistan National Army] uniforms using a proprietary camouflage pattern appear to have resulted in unit costs that are significantly higher than those for similar non-proprietary camouflaged uniforms, potentially costing the U.S. taxpayers an additional $26.65 million–$28.23 million since 2008,” the report said.
The Pentagon could save “between $68.61 million and $71.21 million over the next ten years” by using patterns and uniforms the U.S. already owns, the report said.
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