U.S.-funded Afghan police payroll at risk of waste and abuse: watchdog

WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The United States is spending more than $300 million a year on Afghan police officer salaries despite a significant risk that the funds are being wasted and abused, a U.S. government watchdog said on Monday.

In an audit of Afghan National Police (ANP) salaries, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), said police rosters were inflated, staff were overpaid and payments were made to more employees than were authorized.

It said the organizations responsible for verifying police data - theUnited Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the multi-national Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) - had not properly scrutinized figures provided by Afghanistan's interior ministry (MOI).

"Officials confirmed that over the past year they accepted, without question, all personnel totals provided by the MOI," SIGAR said

Worries about lack of accountability have long dogged the trust fund established by the UNDP in 2002 to administer the payment of salaries of more than 145,000 Afghan police officers.

The United States has provided 38 percent of the $3.6 billion that the international community has contributed to the fund since 2002, according to SIGAR. Overall, the United States has poured more than $100 billion into reconstruction in Afghanistan.

The country is ranked one of the most corrupt in the world, and donors are worried about lack of progress in fighting graft.  Read More U.S.-funded Afghan police

More than $300 Million in Annual, U.S.-funded Salary Payments to the Afghan National Police Is Based on Partially Verified or Reconciled Data - sigar.mil