Mattis bristles at Pentagon waste of $28 million on Afghan uniforms

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has criticized Pentagon officials for wasting as much as $28 million by making a questionable choice of forest camouflage-patterned uniforms for Afghan National Army soldiers, Reuters reported. "Mattis was citing a report released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in June, which found Pentagon wasted as much as $28 million on the woodland uniforms because the Afghan minister of defense said he "liked the woodland, urban, and temperate patterns. ADVERTISEMENT

“Buying uniforms for our Afghan partners, and doing so in a way that may have wasted tens of millions of taxpayer dollars over a 10-year period, must not be seen as inconsequential in the grand scheme of the Department's responsibilities and budget,” Mattis wrote in the memo that was addressed to the undersecretaries for policy, comptroller and acquisition, technology and logistics. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has chided the Pentagon for its “cavalier or casually acquiescent decisions to spend taxpayer dollars in an effective and wasteful manner,” cautioning the department that such missteps are “not to recur.”

The memo, obtained Monday by Fox News, highlights a June report by the U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan (SIGAR) which found that as much as $28 million had been wasted by the Pentagon over a ten-year period on uniforms for Afghan soldiers with a camouflage pattern deemed unsuitable for the country’s predominantly desert terrain. "In my view, the key finding of the ... report is not just that it exposes waste, or that it captures how funds are diverted away from other mission priorities, but rather that it serves as an example of a complacent mode of thinking," Mattis wrote, according to the Associated Press The SIGAR report will be the focus of a hearing by a panel of House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. Grassley, senior member of the Budget and Finance committees, blasted the decision as “embarrassing and an affront to U.S. taxpayers.”

Afghan soldiers do fight insurgents from the Taliban and other terrorist groups in terrain where forest camouflage would be appropriate. "I expect all [Defense Department] organizations to use this error as a catalyst to bring to light wasteful practices - and take aggressive steps to end waste in our department," Mattis said, according to the Military Times Mattis added that the decision "must not be seen as inconsequential" and urged the Pentagon to learn from their mistake.
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis criticizes The Pentagon for wasting US$28 million for Afghan woodland camouflage that did not match the country's terrain.