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GAO-21-32R 1 (2021-01-27)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaecil0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 1Oo U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE A Century of Non-Partisan Fact-Based Work 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 January 27, 2021 The Honorable Jackie Speier House of Representatives The Honorable Tim Walberg House of Representatives The Honorable Peter Welch House of Representatives AFGHANISTAN RECONSTRUCTION: GAO Work since 2002 Shows Systemic Internal Control Weaknesses that Increased the Risk of Waste, Fraud, and Abuse The U.S. government has allocated approximately $141 billion for reconstruction in Afghanistan since 2002. We have issued over 400 reports1 covering U.S. government activities in Afghanistan during this period, about a quarter of which involved U.S.-funded reconstruction efforts.2 You asked us to report on waste, fraud, and abuse that GAO uncovered with respect to U.S. reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. In this report, we summarize the systemic internal control weaknesses that increased the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse related to Afghanistan reconstruction we identified in prior GAO work. To summarize these internal control weaknesses, we reviewed 424 unclassified GAO reports focused in whole or in part on Afghanistan issued from 2002 through 2020; of these we identified 105 that addressed reconstruction efforts. We examined each of the 105 reports and identified 50 that found internal control weaknesses that increased the risk of waste, fraud, or abuse occurring.3 We identified these weaknesses by reviewing Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government and by systematically assessing whether the report explicitly or implicitly referred to an increased risk of waste, fraud, or abuse.4 Specifically, we determined whether each report explicitly referred to a risk of waste, fraud, or abuse, or whether it implicitly referred to a risk by identifying an internal control weakness that might result in an increased risk of waste, fraud, or abuse. We generally determined that an internal control weakness might result in an increased risk of waste, fraud, or abuse if, in the original report, we had made a recommendation to the agency or agencies involved to address the reported weakness. We 1We are using the term report to include all GAO published work, including reports, testimonies, and other products. 2The remaining reports address war fighting, care for returning veterans, and other topics. We identified 13 additional, classified reports that involved reconstruction activities that we excluded from our analysis. 31n this report, when we say waste, fraud, or abuse, it could mean any combination of these three. 4GAO, Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government, GAO-14-704G (Washington, D.C.: September 2014). GAO-21-32R Afghanistan Reconstruction Page 1

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