Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reveals that the State Department has blown off more than 20 requests for information from his office in the last eight months.
"Billions more continue to be spent,” Sopko writes. “Congress and American taxpayers deserve to know why the Afghan government collapsed after all that assistance, where the money went, and how taxpayer money is now being spent in Afghanistan.”
Sopko writes, the State Department told him from now on it would choose its own auditors.
The watchdog reminds the State Department that it is prohibited by law from preventing his office from carrying out its duties and that its authorizing statutes specifically states no officer from the Department of Defense, the Department of State, or the United States Agency for International Development shall prevent or prohibit the Inspector General from initiating, carrying out, or completing any audit or investigation related to amounts appropriated or otherwise made available for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
“It should go without saying, but neither SIGAR’s authorizing statute nor the Inspector General Act of 1978 contain a “choose your own auditor” provision,” Sopko writes to Blinken.