Afghan National Police Fuel Program: Concerted Efforts Needed to Strengthen Oversight of U.S. Funds

The Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) equips and trains the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), which includes the Afghan National Police (ANP) and Afghan National Army. CSTC-A uses the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund (ASFF) to provide the ANSF with equipment, supplies, and training, as well as facility and infrastructure repair, renovation, and construction. A portion of the ASFF has been used to purchase fuel for the ANSF.To purchase fuel for the ANSF, CSTC-A uses blanket purchase agreements issued by the U.S. Central Command Joint Theater Support Contracting Command (C-JTSCC). C-JTSCC executes and oversees contracts and exercises command and control over all contingency contracting forces operating in Afghanistan. Under the blanket purchase agreements, C-JTSCC is the contracting officer organization responsible for administering fuel contracts and CSTC-A provides the contracting officer representative responsible for the ordering and accounting of fuel purchased for the ANSF.In January 2013, we reported on fuel purchases for the Afghan National Army, which is under the Afghan Ministry of Defense. That report identified weaknesses with CSTC-A's processes governing the ordering, receipt, and payment for fuel used to support vehicles, generators, and power plants. We also found that CSTCA budget requests for Afghan National Army fuel were potentially overstated because they were based on unsupported data and that CSTC-A planned to provide $1 billion in direct contributions to the Ministry of Defense despite known risks. SIGAR made six recommendations to improve accountability and transparency of funds and fuel; CSTC-A concurred with all the recommendations.We initiated this audit to evaluate U.S. oversight of fuel purchases for ANP, which is under the Ministry of Interior (MOI). Specifically, this audit assesses:• the extent to which C-JTSCC and CSTC-A provided oversight of ANP fuel purchases, deliveries, and consumption;• CSTC-A's efforts to provide direct contributions to the Afghan government to support ANP's logistics transition; and• the basis and support for CSTC-A's funding request for fiscal year 2013 and its estimates from fiscal years 2014 through 2018.