The Biden administration doesn't know if millions of dollars in taxpayer funds sent to Afghanistan are falling into the Taliban's hands because its terrorism vetting files are incomplete—or, in some instances, destroyed—a government audit found.
Two State Department bureaus—Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) and International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL)—"could not demonstrate their compliance with partner vetting requirements because they were unable to provide supporting documentation for many of their respective awards," the Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstructions (SIGAR) disclosed in a Wednesday report. "Collectively, State could not demonstrate their compliance with its partner vetting requirements on awards that disbursed at least $293 million in Afghanistan."
The oversight authority, which monitors America's multibillion-dollar aid program in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, determined the State Department violated federal document preservation requirements, making it nearly impossible for federal investigators to learn if U.S. officials properly vetted its Afghan-based partners for potential ties to the Taliban and other terrorist groups.
"Because two State bureaus could not demonstrate their compliance with State's partner vetting requirements, there is an increased risk that terrorist and terrorist-affiliated individuals and entities may have illegally benefited from State spending in Afghanistan," the report says.
"As State continues to spend U.S. taxpayer funds on programs intended to benefit the Afghan people, it is critical that State knows who is actually benefiting from this assistance in order to prevent the aid from being diverted to the Taliban or other sanctioned parties."
The findings come two months after SIGAR revealed in a May audit that "at least $10.9 million" in taxpayer funds went to the Taliban, sparking a demand for further investigation by congressional Republicans.
More than $2.3 billion in aid has made its way to Afghanistan since the Biden administration's disastrous 2021 evacuation from the country killed 13 American soldiers and brought the Taliban back into power. The withdrawal cast a shadow over Joe Biden's presidency. It has been hammered by Republican foreign policy leaders, including former president Donald Trump, as the party vies to retake the White House.
The United States and other international donors pump around $80 million in aid to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan every two weeks, money that the State Department cannot always track once it reaches the country, according to SIGAR.
Such oversight is particularly vital as aid dollars continuously move into Afghanistan amid efforts by the Taliban "to obtain U.S. funds intended to benefit the Afghan people," according to SIGAR. In a bid to obfuscate funding channels, the Taliban has created scores of nonprofit front groups, complicating efforts to vet every organization for terrorism ties.
The State Department told SIGAR in September 2023 that "they were not aware of any instances in which potential implementing partners were identified as newly created Taliban-affiliated organizations." But "in that same month, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) officials told SIGAR that USAID had 'heard reports that over 1,000 new national NGOs have registered with the so-called [Ministry of Economy], and there are rumors that many of these newly registered NGOs may have Taliban affiliations.'"
"The risk of Taliban-founded NGOs, or other organizations that could funnel money to terrorist groups, benefiting from U.S. taxpayer funds underscores the importance of State complying with its own vetting and document retention requirements," SIGAR said in its report.
There is also evidence the State Department destroyed critical documents related to its vetting process.
The State Department "initially refused to cooperate with this audit and destroyed the [Risk Analysis Management] vetting documents for unselected implementing partners in accordance with its records retention policy before we could examine them."
The watchdog group ultimately determined that State's DRL and INL bureaus "did not comply with federal document retention requirements because supporting documentation to demonstrate their compliance with State partner vetting requirements was missing from the bureaus' award files."
The State Department also "acknowledged that not all bureaus complied with document retention requirements" and that there are "gaps in compliance with federal and internal document retention requirements."
DRL, for instance, was only able to produce proper vetting documents for "three of its seven awards, while the partner vetting documentation for four of its awards were missing from its contracting files," according to the investigation.
Similarly, "INL could only provide SIGAR with supporting vetting documentation for 3 of its 22 awards because supporting documentation for 19 of its awards was missing from its contracting files."
SIGAR said the findings "underscore the importance of State retaining complete, timely, and accurate records of its partner vetting activities in Afghanistan, as these records are critical to understand whether vetting occurred and for completing audits of those activities."