John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in February 2020. Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images file photo
Republicans Want a Briefing to Find Out How Well (Or Not) Agencies Are Cooperating With the Afghanistan Watchdog
“Some of these allegations [about failure to provide information] are simply false,” said a State Department spokesperson.
Two top House Republicans are requesting a briefing from the Afghanistan watchdog by next week following allegations that federal agencies are still not cooperating with the special inspector general’s work.
Reps. James Comer, R-Ky., ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., ranking member of the committee’s panel on national security, sent a letter to John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, on Tuesday with concerns that the Biden administration is still obstructing their investigations in wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021. This follows Sopko’s letter over the summer blasting the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development for their “sudden refusal to cooperate.” (The agencies said they are committed to working with the watchdog and just had concerns with the office’s jurisdiction).
“Unfortunately, since June 22, the level of cooperation and assistance SIGAR has received from State and USAID has only decreased across SIGAR’s entire portfolio,” Robert Lawrence, SIGAR’s director of congressional relations and government affairs, wrote to Mark Marin, Republican staff director for the oversight committee, in an October 11 email, obtained by Government Executive and cited in the lawmakers’ letter.
“While both agencies assisted with SIGAR’s last quarterly report (July 2022), they have largely declined to respond to SIGAR’s requests for information for the forthcoming October 2022 report to Congress,” Lawrence continued. “This is troubling.” He said the agencies are still claiming there are jurisdictional issues, but despite a back and forth of letters they haven’t proposed how such issues would get resolved.
The IG’s forthcoming quarterly report will not include information on USAID’s programs in Afghanistan; information from State and USAID on the “operating environment in Afghanistan, including matters relating to Taliban interference with non-governmental organization operations, the status of Taliban governing institutions and the general security situation; and information from the State and Treasury Department on the newly created “Afghan Fund,” to help the people of Afghanistan amid their economic and humanitarian crisis, according to Lawrence. SIGAR will still produce a quarterly report––which will be its 57th–– later this month, he added.
Comer and Grothman wrote to Sopko, “The lack of cooperation from the Biden administration raises serious questions.” As a result, they are requesting a briefing by November 1 on the watchdog’s oversight efforts and any obstacles from the Biden administration.
Philip LaVelle, executive director of public affairs for SIGAR, told Government Executive, “We always comply with requests from committee chairmen and ranking members, and will do so in this case. We look forward to briefing the committee.”
A State Department spokesperson told Government Executive the department generally doesn’t comment on correspondence with Congress.
“But some of these allegations are simply false,” said the spokesperson, regarding the lawmakers’ letter. “The State Department has provided SIGAR written responses to dozens of questions, as well as thousands of pages of responsive documents, analyses and spreadsheets describing dozens of programs that were part of the U.S. government’s reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, despite the fact that the United States stopped providing assistance for the purpose of the reconstruction of Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in August 2021."
A USAID spokesperson also said they don’t comment on correspondence with Congress as a general rule.
“The United States stopped providing assistance for the purpose of the reconstruction of Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in August 2021,” the spokesperson continued. “Nonetheless, since August, USAID has continued to cooperate and provide information to SIGAR, with upwards of 25 evaluations, audits and other engagements. We’ve provided hundreds of pages of analysis, responsive documents and spreadsheets, and we will continue to do so for any requests that fall under SIGAR’s statutory jurisdiction.”
Government Executive also asked the Treasury Department for comment on the Republican lawmakers’ letter, but it did not respond by the time of this article’s publication.