'Billions given to Pak to fight terror mostly unaccounted for'

Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington, June 26 (PTI) - Nearly USD six billion provided
by the US to Pakistan to fight against terrorism since the
September 9, 2001 attacks on America has little been used for
that purpose, an independent audit has found.

The findings by the Government Accountability Office
(GAO) released in a report Tuesday showed a troubling lack of
oversight and accountability for the US funds to Pakistan that
were meant to combat terrorism.

The findings angered Congress members with the Chairman
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrat Howard Berman
expressing shock at the lack of oversight of several billion
dollars heading the way of Pakistan by way of Coalition
Support Funds which is funding for the war on terror.

"I'm shocked at the lack of oversight of billions of
dollars that have been doled out in Pakistan in an effort to
fight terrorism," Berman said in a statement.

The US has provided Pakistan about USD 5.6 billion in
payments since 2001 attacks on World Trade Centre which killed
more than 3000 people.

The GAO found several cases where the Bush Administration
could not explain or account for such payments, including
millions of dollars for road construction with no evidence
that any roads were built, and reimbursement costs to the
Pakistan military that may be duplicative.

"The report documents how US funds were used without any
evidence that they supported counter-terrorism efforts.

"The US government is being asked to reimburse Pakistan
for non-incremental air defence radar maintenance when al
Qaeda is not even known to have an air force. The purpose of
these funds is to support the fight against extremists, not to
boost Pakistan's conventional warfare capability," he said.
PTI