Report: DOD spent $57M on broken Afghan base

The Defense Department spent $57.1 million on a base for Afghan soldiers that features, among other things, insufficient electricity and a dramatically overcrowded dining hall, according to a new watchdog report.

The study, released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), details how a number of projects paid for by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Camp Commando went wrong.

{mosads}The base, located in the capital of Kabul, is home to number of Afghan military forces, including the National Army Special Operations Command Division Headquarters.

Based on inspections carried out between last February and November, the watchdog office found that a $7 million electrical power plant and refueling point were not built to specifications, nor were they calibrated so that they could work at the same time.

The Army Corps of Engineers agreed with SIGAR’s conclusions on the power plant and explained that someone in the Afghan army made an improper connection to a transformer in July 2012.

The U.S. is now spending $2.1 million to repair the power plant’s electrical system, according to inspectors.

Meanwhile, a dining hall built for 280 Afghan troops is in reality handling 1,600 soldiers.

To help better serve the overflow, the camp commander told inspectors that he built an addition onto the kitchen for cooking rice.

In light of the findings, the Corps of Engineers argued that no disciplinary action should be taken against the contractors and that blame for the power plant troubles rests with the Afghan army.