Sometimes taxpayer waste is so large and rampant, you can stumble across it without even trying.
That’s what happened to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. On a trip to Afghanistan, he happened upon a fleet of abandoned military planes. His questions took him down the rabbit hole, where hundreds of millions of your tax dollars were spent on a giant boondoggle that turned out to be worthless.
Anyone flying through Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan’s capital city the past couple of years, might have seen this odd scene: a fleet of abandoned military planes parked off to the side.
“We actually asked the question ‘what are those airplanes?’ Because you would see them right next to the main terminal in Kabul. They were all jumbled together with trees and grass growing in between them,” Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, said.
Sopko saw the planes on a trip to Afghanistan in November 2013 to investigate waste of U.S. tax dollars. Nobody seemed eager to answer his questions. So he took matters in his own hands.
“I basically threatened to just walk across the tarmac and said, ‘if you’re gonna arrest me do it, but I’m certain it will be front page New York Times.’ So my staff and I went over there and then they briefed us on it and told us the story,” Sopko continued.
The story wasn’t pretty.
John Michel, Commanding General for NATO Air Training Command in Afghanistan, explained the U.S. had bought 20 of the Italian-built G-222s in 2008.
“It’s what we call the G-triple-2,” Sopko explained. “It was a two engine cargo aircraft that we purchased for the Afghan Air Force. Cost approximately $400 million. But with the total package of parts, spare parts and whatever, it probably is going to be closer to $600 million when we finally do an accounting for it.
Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars the U.S. military spent, the G-triple-2 turned out to be ill-suited for Afghanistan’s dusty conditions. The planes required constant maintenance and spare parts.
“Actually some pilots have told us that when they flew the airplanes in, parts fell off the airplane as it landed,” Sopko said. “They were called death traps. We couldn’t train the Afghans to use the planes because the planes weren’t airworthy. And ultimately, they were abandoned at the airport in Kabul and that’s how we found them.
Within months of Sopko beginning an investigation, the military officially put a bullet in the G- triple-2 program, claiming the Italian contractor had failed “to generate a sufficient number of fully mission-capable aircraft.” The contractor argued it was “exceeding program objectives” and was “proud of its work.” (continue reading)