US House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer says the Biden Administration’s lack of cooperation given to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) on its assessment of the American troop withdrawal in August 2021 is “unacceptable”.
He said the administration “will neither avoid SIGAR’s important oversight work nor flout accountability to the American people for its catastrophic failures in Afghanistan.”
The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is also investigating the withdrawal of U.S. forces and the evacuation of U.S. citizens and allies from Afghanistan and one of its key partners has been SIGAR.
However, in a letter addressed to Secretaries Anthony Blinken, Lloyd Austin, Janet Yellen, and Administrator Samantha Power on Tuesday, Comer stated that “SIGAR has notified the committee on multiple occasions of the Department of State’s, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID), the Department of Defense’s, and the U.S. Department of Treasury’s refusals to cooperate with SIGAR’s ongoing evaluations.
Comer stated that “the committee urges the [Biden] Administration to cooperate fully with SIGAR on any prior, ongoing, or future requests for information, audits, evaluations, oversight, interviews, or any other tool SIGAR deems necessary to complete its mission.”
He also said in the letter the committee questions why the Biden Administration’s posture has changed towards SIGAR and if it is because SIGAR has voiced concerns about the Administration’s efficacy in Afghanistan to date.
Comer said in the letter that the Administration has stonewalled SIGAR on multiple occasions including its request for material on the Doha Peace Agreement with the Taliban, along with its implementing agreements and classified annexes. Comer said despite numerous requests by SIGAR there was no response from the State Department.
He also said that SIGAR was denied a meeting to interview Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West, while the State Department also directed its staff not to participate in SIGAR interviews.
Comer states in the letter that USAID has repeatedly refused to allow SIGAR to interview its employees, while the State Department and USAID have refused to provide SIGAR with certain information related to their ongoing efforts in Afghanistan.
In addition, Comer says that the State Department has instructed a contractor not to participate in a SIGAR audit, and it has instructed USAID and Treasury to not participate in any requests for information about the Afghan Fund.
Comer notes that as U.S. taxpayer dollars continue to assist the people of Afghanistan, it is imperative SIGAR’s mission remains unobstructed. “Congress has granted SIGAR authority to carry out this mission of providing whole-of-government oversight, and it is Congress’s authority alone to determine SIGAR’s jurisdiction and scope of mission. Therefore, the Committee urges the Administration to cooperate fully with SIGAR on any prior, ongoing, or future requests for information, audits, evaluations, oversight, interviews, or any other tool SIGAR deems necessary to complete its mission,” the letter read.
This comes after Special Investigator General John Sopko testified before the committee in April and said: “Due to the refusal of State or USAID to fully cooperate with SIGAR, I cannot report to this committee or the American people on the extent to which our government may be funding the Taliban and other nefarious groups with U.S. taxpayer dollars.”
He said that since August 2021, the U.S. has provided or otherwise made available $8 billion to assist the people of Afghanistan. This includes $2.2 billion for humanitarian and development efforts, and the $3.5 billion in Central Bank reserves transferred to the Afghan Fund.
Comer meanwhile stated that the Committee is not confident the Biden Administration can guarantee that funding will make it to its intended recipients and not the Taliban or other sources of terrorism.
