SIGAR SET TO INVESTIGATE FORMER PRESIDENT GHANI’S ALLEGED MONEY TAKE OUT

Fri 08 October 2021:

Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani allegedly took millions of cash with him when he left the country, according to US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko, and his office would look into allegations.

Ghani has stated that he fled Kabul to avoid bloodshed and that he did not take big sums of money with him. However, speculation has persisted, and Congress has requested Sopko’s staff to investigate.

“We haven’t proven that yet. We’re looking into that. Actually, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee has asked us to look into that,” Sopko told a House of Representatives subcommittee.

Ghani has been bitterly criticized for fleeing as the Taliban reached the outskirts of Kabul in August.

Sopko’s Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has long been probing fraud, waste, and abuse during America’s vast state-building effort, which ended in ignominy with the Taliban’s takeover after 20 years.

Sopko suggested to the House Foreign Affairs Committee subcommittee that oversees development aid that the failure of the US project shouldn’t have been a surprise, given rampant corruption and mismanagement.

“Corruption grew so pervasive that it ultimately threatened the security and reconstruction mission in Afghanistan,” he told the House panel.

The congressional hearing was one of a series looking at the chaotic US withdrawal and the path forward. “We can apply the lessons learned in other conflict zones,” Representative Joaquin Castro, the subcommittee’s Democratic chairman, said.

The United States and other countries have cut off almost all aid to Afghanistan.

“These are trying times for all of us who care about the future of the Afghan people, especially the Afghans that aided the US and its allies over the past 20 years,” Sopko said.

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