U.S. can't keep track of Afghan spending

A program designed to keep tabs on more than $3 billion in foreign development spending has given the government little idea if the funds it has poured into Afghanistan are actually accomplishing anything.

Of 127 contracts and grants given out by the U.S. Agency for International Development since the program was set up in 2013, only one was ever verified by the monitoring system, according to a report made public by USAID's inspector general over the weekend.

The watchdog found the agency couldn't reconcile its financial records with the actual number of active contracts in Afghanistan, which means USAID didn't even know how many projects it was paying for, let alone whether those projects should be continued.

USAID has spent $17 billion in Afghanistan since 2002 through a series of sprawling projects, making effective oversight of its contracts crucial to preventing waste.

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