Inspector General: Obama Paid $300 Million To ‘People Who Don’t Exist’
Barack Obama will always be remembered for a series of highly irregular overseas payments to authoritarian regimes, however, according to a report by the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, those wasted millions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Obama’s largesse.
According to special inspector general John Sopko, Obama wasted at least $300 million on the salaries of “people who don’t exist”, who were supposedly operating in Afghanistan, far away from the prying eyes of U.S. oversight. That’s not just fraud, folks. In fact, according to Sopko, it’s “Major fraud.”
Where did the money go?
“We’ve been raising this concern about ghosts going back a number of years,” Sopko told Sharyl Attkinson of Full Measure.
“Actually I want to say we heard about it from (Afghan President) Ashraf Ghani years ago before he became president, he warned me about ‘ghosts,’ so we started looking three years ago.”
“What we’re talking about are policemen, Afghan policemen, Afghan military, Afghan civil servants who don’t exist or they have multiple identity cards and we’re paying their salaries,” he explained. “By ‘we’ I mean the United States and the international community. And we started finding out that we had no capacity to measure the number of soldiers, teachers, doctors, military people who we are paying their salaries.”
Fox News had even reported as early as October 2016 that, based on a Sopko letter released to the Pentagon, the fraud could have amounted to more than $300 million annually.
“In January 2015 we reported that more than $300 million in annual, U.S.-funded salary payments to the Afghan National Police were based on only partially verified or reconciled data, and that there was no assurance that personnel and payroll data were accurate. We found similar deficiencies during the course of our April 2015 audit of Afghan National Army personnel and payroll data,” wrote Sopko.
That’s not just fraud, folks. According to Sopko, it’s “Major fraud. And what’s happening is the commanders or generals or other higher officials are actually pocketing the salaries of the ghosts.”
“And I remember President Ghani again, at that time he wasn’t president, saying, ‘John, you the United States government are paying the salary of an Afghan who’s a teacher, he’s a civil servant, he’s a doctor, he is a policeman, and he’s a soldier. And it’s the same Afghan. And he doesn’t exist,’” Sopko explained.
“It’s not just the salaries,” he added. “But we’re funding schools based upon the number of students, so if you invent or inflate the number of students, you’re going to be paying more money. On the soldiers and the police, we’re paying for extra boots, for food, for everything else, logistics for numbers that don’t exist.”
This is bad enough as it is, but to make matters worse, apparently Sopko had alerted the Pentagon on numerous occasions to what he had discovered in 2016, but…as you can imagine…the Obama administration did nothing about it.
Thankfully, though, there’s a new sheriff in town, and proper measures are finally being put into place to put an end to this nonsense.
According to the Independent Journal Review, Attkinsson notes that the Pentagon is implementing a biometric system that will be checking fingerprints, photos, and even blood type in order to verify “proof of life” and get rid of the “ghosts.”
She added that the Pentagon said it had “up to 95 percent of the Afghan police and 70-80 percent of soldiers” enrolled in the program.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s very encouraging to hear that we’re finally addressing this issue and taking measures to get this under control, but it’s equally discouraging to think about all the millions of taxpayer dollars that will never be recovered. What do you think?
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato (429-347 BC)
TRY THE PATRIOT AD FREE
"FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM AND LIBERTY"
and is protected speech pursuant to the "unalienable rights" of all men, and the First (and Second) Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, In God we trust
Stand Up To Government Corruption and Hypocrisy
NEVER FORGET THE SACRIFICES
BY OUR VETERANS
Note: We at The Patriot cannot make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information.
Don't forget to follow the Friends Of Liberty on Facebook and our Page also Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr and Google Plus PLEASE help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.
LibertygroupFreedom 
The Patriot is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with the mission to Educate, protect and defend individual freedoms and individual rights.
Support the Trump Presidency and help us fight Liberal Media Bias. Please LIKE and SHARE this story on Facebook or Twitter.
WE THE PEOPLE
TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Join The Resistance and Share This Article Now!
TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Help us spread the word about THE PATRIOT Blog we're reaching millions help us reach millions more.
Help us spread the word about THE PATRIOT Blog we're reaching millions help us reach millions more.
‼️️ ♻️ PLEASE SHARE ♻️ ‼️️
Please SHARE this now! The Crooked Liberal Media will hide and distort the TRUTH. It’s up to us, Trump social media warriors, to get the truth out. If we don’t, no one will!
Share this story on Facebook and let us know because we want to hear YOUR voice!
Facebook has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers' newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share with your friends, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Thank you
No comments:
Post a Comment