The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) warned of the problem of “ghost workers” in the past, but their most recent letter to the Combined Security Transition Command (CTSC) suggests the problem may be bigger and worse than ever suggested before.
SIGAR warned that corruption and years of lack of oversight had made it easy for Afghan officials to pad the numbers of Afghan National Police (ANP) on the US payroll, and that many of those police may not even exist.
The theory is that the US sends the money for the payroll, and officials are able to pluck out the money for people who aren’t real, and therefore won’t miss their paychecks, keeping them for themselves.
The CTSC confirmed the problem was likely real in a memo, saying that they discovered “discrepancies” in their records that included some 54,000 “erroneous” identification numbers. SIGAR warned that not only was paying imaginary police a waste on money, but that the US is making policy decisions based on ANP personnel numbers, and if a lot of those personnel don’t exist, it could skew US planning.
Tell us something we didn't know… This issue of "ghost workers" is not new and has been known from the very beginning of the occupation. Tells me that the US really doesn't care. They know where and by whom the money is being siphoned. It keeps the responsible Afghan officials on board with US policy and ensures that voting to send the US packing will be a difficult task – who would willingly vote to cutoff free money?
why not? they pay for nonexistant diplomats
54,000 erroneous identification numbers is enormous. Wiki says that Afghanistan Has 160,000 police so 13 of the payroll is a direct bribe. So the planners think you need about 1 policeman per 200 people. Wow that is 3 x normal ratio. And then there is 1 active duty solder per 100 population directed at internal security. Which all adds up to allot of bribes given about 1/3 of these guys probably do not exist. We have spent 23,000 dollars per afgan during the war.