Afghan aid auditor accuses US State Department, USAID of withholding info

The congressionally mandated watchdog for US assistance to Afghanistan is accusing the State Department and US Agency for International Development of illegally withholding information from it about the American withdrawal from the country last year and current policy.

Amid a spat over what the Biden administration believes to have been an overly critical report about the American pullout, the Special Inspector for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John Sopko, said the State Department and USAID were refusing to cooperate with his staff in violation of the law that created the office.

The allegations were made in separate letters from Sopko to lawmakers and to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power, and by Sopko’s general counsel to the top lawyers for each agency. The letters were obtained by The Associated Press.

The State Department did not deny it had cut off cooperation with the watchdog. But it complained that the special inspector had not given the administration a chance to respond to its latest report covering the withdrawal that was released last month.

The department said the report was unfairly negative and did not represent the administration’s view of the events surrounding the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban takeover.

In his letters, Sopko was blunt, seeking immediate action from Congress, Blinken and Power to restore the cooperation his office has had with their agencies in the past.

“I respectfully request that you direct State and USAID officials to cease their illegal obstruction of SIGAR’s oversight work and to provide the requested information and assistance without further delay,” he wrote to Blinken and Power.

Sopko said his staff had requested numerous documents and interviews with officials who were involved in the chaotic withdrawal and aftermath last July but had been stonewalled for several months. He said those requests involved information about the evacuation and resettlement of Afghan nationals as well as ongoing humanitarian aid and questions about whether that assistance might be transferred to the Taliban.

“It is now evident that offices and staff who have cooperated with similar requests in the past were being silenced or overruled by officials opposed to SIGAR’s independent oversight,” Sopko wrote.

The State Department said both it and USAID remain committed to assisting SIGAR’s mission and would respond to the watchdog’s allegations. But the department said it “had concerns about how some of SIGAR’s requests for information relate to their statutory jurisdiction.”