Pentagon Misuses U.S. Emergency Fund on Afghan Power Project, Skelton Says

Pentagon Misuses U.S. Emergency Fund on Afghan Power Project, Skelton Says
By Tony Capaccio - Tue Aug 17 04:01:00 GMT 2010

The Defense Department is misspending at least $227 million on an Afghan power project from a U.S. fund designed to let combat commanders bankroll small, high- impact humanitarian efforts, according to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton.

The money is among the largest amounts spent so far from the Commander’s Emergency Response Program, known as CERP. It’s being used to lease or buy generators and a year’s worth of fuel to provide more electric power to Kandahar, the southern Afghanistan city that U.S., NATO and Afghan forces are trying to wrest from Taliban control.

“I do not believe that the use of CERP funds, which are intended to carry out small-scale, quick-impact projects, is proper or well advised,” however laudable the electricity project may be, Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, wrote in an undisclosed July 14 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Using the emergency response program fund for projects outside its intended scope may undercut congressional confidence and lead to spending restrictions in Afghanistan, Skelton wrote. The lawmaker leads one of the four congressional defense panels that control annual Pentagon spending.

“The department acknowledged, and is reviewing Congressman Skelton’s concerns regarding the use of CERP funds in Afghanistan,” a Pentagon spokeswoman, Lieutenant Commander Kathleen Kesler, said in an e-mail. “The department believes CERP is an important tool to further our objectives in Afghanistan, just as it is in Iraq.”