© Sigar
When Pentagon personnel travel abroad, they're typically placed in government housing, perfectly livable accommodations which save taxpayers millions. But according to a letter written by John Sopko, the chief of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a Defense Department agency spent an exorbitant sum to house government employees in "western-style accommodations."
"If (task force) employees had instead lived at (Department of Defense) facilities in Afghanistan, where housing, security, and food service are routinely provided at little or no extra charge to DoD organizations, it appears the taxpayers would have saved tens of millions dollars," Sopko wrote, according to USA Today.To provide those employees of the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO) with flat-screen TVs of at least 27 inches, private bodyguards, and food of at least "three star" quality, the total bill reached $150 million, 20% of the task force's total budget.
That money was meant to go toward rebuilding Afghanistan's infrastructure, but instead went to a military contractor known as Triple Canopy to provide the pricey accommodations. That company has earned approximately $2.2 billion in government contracts since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began in 2003.
Comment: Americans' tax-dollars hard at work, providing lavish digs for officials instead of rebuilding the infrastructure in Afghanistan that the US government helped destroy.