Pakistani pork: military budget bungle.

• Author: Howley, Kerry
• Position: Citings - Brief article

IN 2004 the Pakistani government began billing the United States military for a new $30 million road. In 2006 it started charging us Sift million to build bunkers. The Department of Defense cut the checks. But according the Government Accountability Office (GAO), no American ever moseyed over to check if the roads or bunkers actually existed.

Those millions, and many more, came from the Coalition Support Fund--money intended to reimburse U.S. allies for military assistance since 9/11. So far the Pentagon has handed the Pakistani government $5.6 billion, ostensibly for costs associated with support for American military operations. What, precisely, has that money bought? No one really knows. When GAO investigators went over the paperwork to see what the Pakistani military had claimed as expenses, they found slapdash, inconsistent records that made it impossible to trace much of the cash. Three-quarters of the costs...