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US GAO calls for greater oversight of Pakistan military aid
By Jon Grevatt
26 June 2008
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has called for more oversight of military aid being granted to Pakistan for support provided to the United States in the war on terrorism, a GAO report has stated.
Since 2002, US Congress has appropriated about USD5.6 billion to Pakistan under its Coalition Support Funds (CSF) programme - but the GAO said on 24 June that "documentation to verify that claimed costs were valid, actually incurred, or correctly calculated" was not being obtained in "a large number of reimbursement claims".
The report said: "For example, as of May 2008, [the US Department of Defense (DoD)] paid over USD2 billion in Pakistani reimbursement claims for military activities covering January 2004 through June 2007 without obtaining sufficient information that would enable a third party to recalculate these costs.
"Furthermore, [the DoD] may have reimbursed costs that (1) were not incremental, (2) were not based on actual activity, or (3) were potentially duplicative."
In its recommendations, the GAO said that "additional oversight controls were needed". It added that the DoD needed to implement existing oversight criteria, gain greater access to Pakistan's accounting processes, and to formalise the role of its representatives in Islamabad.