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U.S. Watchdog Warns $104 Billion Could Be Wasted In Afghanistan


An Afghan man collects cotton on the outskirts of Jalalabad.
An Afghan man collects cotton on the outskirts of Jalalabad.

A U.S. watchdog has warned that much of the $104 billion committed to Afghan reconstruction projects could be wasted because the Afghan government cannot sustain the investment.

In a report issued on December 10 by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the agency warns that Afghanistan's national security forces are not fiscally sustainable.

The report warns that without donor contributions the Afghan government will not be able to meet most of its operating or development expenditures.

It also says the United States lacks a comprehensive anticorruption strategy and that counternarcotics operations are no longer a top priority for the United States.

The United Nations says opium production in Afghanistan reached another all-time high in November.

A recent survey on perceived corruption by the nongovernmental group Transparency International ranked Afghanistan as the fourth most corrupt country in the world.

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