WASHINGTON: Almost $13m in equipment designed to upgrade Afghanistan’s creaking power grid has been left mothballed in storage for lack of an installation plan, a US watchdog audit revealed.
In addition, the State Department’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found a contractor was paid $5.76m to help the Afghan national power utility, but most of the work was never carried out.
“Almost $12.8m in equipment purchased to meet urgent needs in support of the counterinsurgency strategy is sitting unused in storage... without a clear plan for installation,” said the report by Inspector General John Sopko.
The equipment was dispatched in March, but has been stored at a US Army Corps of Engineers base in the southern city of Kandahar on wooden palettes as they ponder what to do with it, pending a clear installation plan.
A further concern is that the manufacturer’s two-year warranty on the electricity meters could run out before the equipment is installed.
Sopko said in a letter to General John Allen, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, that he had audited US efforts to help the Afghan power utility, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat.
He also highlighted that millions of dollars were paid to contractor Louis Berger Group Inc/Black & Veatch to provide training and technical assistance to DABS.
But 76 percent of the work was never completed, including “a draft and final meter installation plan, procurement and installation of 231 boundary meters, and a transition manual and handover plan.”
The two findings “warrant immediate attention prior to issuing a final report in early 2013,” Sopko wrote.
Since 2009, the US has spent some $88m to help improve and modernise the Afghan power grid, and a further $157m are pledged between 2013-2016.
Afghanistan, which never had a fully developed power grid, is trying to rebuild after more than three decades of war.
The SIGAR report recommended that US commanders determine whether the equipment can be used in Kandahar, and draw up a plan.
AFP
