Fuel theft has become a lucrative business in Afghanistan, with at least 154.4 million USD in fuel stolen from either the US military or the ANDSF, according to a Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report.
Afghan government officials are yet to comment on SIGAR report.
“The stolen fuel may have funded terrorists and destabilized the Afghanistan government,” the report reads.
The Department of State said “corruption is the most formidable obstacle to a stable Afghanistan,” the Friday SIGAR report noted. Price tag could, if siphoned off, feed corruption in the region, the report warns. Plans are in the works to spend 2 billion USD on fuel in the Afghanistan area, according to the report.
“The orders to steal the fuel and the locations authorized to purchase the stolen fuel were allegedly determined by the local police chief, the mayor and the provincial governor, who all shared the profits,” the report said.
Part of the corruption was made possible by US soldiers slacking on their duties, such as not checking meter gauges. In other cases, US contractors and military personnel were culprits. In 2012, three US Army service members stole 180,000 gallons of jet fuel, which they loaded onto trucks an Afghan trucking contractor owned.
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