Reuters/Jean-Paul Pelissier
SrikandiTV - Pemantau Amerika Syarikat bertanya mengapa 16 pesawat yang dibeli untuk Tentera Udara Afghanistan, berharga hampir $ 500 juta, telah bertukar menjadi besi buruk bernilai hanya $ 32,000 ribu. Kerajaan mahu tahu mengapa beratus-ratus juta wang pembayar cukai telah dibazirkan ke atas projek itu.
Pesawat pengangkutan tentera telah duduk di Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Kabul selama bertahun-tahun, sebelum dihantar untuk sekerap. John Sopko, Ketua Khas untuk Afghanistan Semula (SIGAR), mahu tahu mengapa wang itu sia-sia. Menurut Reuters, beliau telah meminta Setiausaha Tentera Udara Deborah James menyimpan rekod mengenai semua keputusan mengenai kemusnahan daripada 16 kapal terbang C-27J.
Sopko juga mahu tahu apa yg akan berlaku kpd 4 pesawat pengangkutan pada masa ini disimpan di pangkalan Tentera Udara Amerika Syarikat di Ramstein, Jerman.
"Saya bimbang bahawa pegawai2 yg bertanggungjawab merancang & melaksana-kan pelupusan daripada kapal terbang mungkin yang telah mempertimbangkan alternatif lain mungkin utk menyelamatkan dolar pembayar cukai," kata Sopko.
20 pesawat telah dibeli dari Alenia, yang merupakan sebahagian daripada syarikat pesawat Itali Fimmeccanica SpA. Walau bagaimanapun, menurut surat SIGAR dihantar kepada Setiausaha Pertahanan Amerika Syarikat Chuck Hagel, program ini telah berakhir pada Mac 2013, "selepas dikekalkan, prestasi yang serius, penye-lenggaraan, & masalah alat ganti & pesawat telah dibumikan," ABC melaporkan.
Menjelang Januari 2013, menurut pejabat Sopko ini, pesawat itu tidak airworthy dan hanya diterbangkan sejumlah 234 daripada 4,500 jam diperlukan dalam 9 bulan dari Januari hingga September 2012 pejabat Spoko juga berkata satu lagi $ 200juta diperlukan untuk membeli ganti bahagian.
US planes worth $500mn SOLD for SCRAP in Afghanistan - for just $32,000 . . .
A US watchdog is asking why 16 planes bought for the Afghan Air Force, costing almost $500 million, were turned into scrap metal valued at just $32,000. The government wants to know why hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money were wasted on the project.
The military transport planes had been sitting at Kabul International Airport for years, before they were sent for scrap. John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), wants to know why the money was wasted. According to Reuters, he had asked Air Force Secretary Deborah James to keep a record of all decisions concerning the destruction of the 16 C-27J planes.
Sopko also wants to know what will happen to another four transport planes currently stored at the US Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany.
"I am concerned that the officials responsible for planning and executing the scrapping of the planes may not have considered other possible alternatives in order to salvage taxpayer dollars," Sopko said.
The 20 planes were bought from Alenia, which is part of the Italian aircraft company Fimmeccanica SpA. However, according to a SIGAR letter sent to US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the program was ended in March 2013, “after sustained, serious performance, maintenance, and spare parts problems and the planes were grounded,” ABC reported.
By January 2013, according to Sopko’s office, the aircraft were not airworthy and had only flown a total of 234 of the 4,500 hours required in nine months from January through September 2012. Spoko’s office also said that a further $200 million was needed to buy spare parts.
Reuters/Jason Reed
Pertahanan Logistik Agensi adalah bertanggungjawab utk memusnahkan pesawat dan Sopko kini mahu tahu jika mana2 bahagian daripada kapal terbang tlh dijual sebelum dihantar untuk besi buruk.
Major Bradlee Avots, jurucakap Pentagon, berkata pesawat 16 di Lapangan Ter-bang Antarabangsa Kabul telah dimusnahkan "untuk mengurangkan kesan ke atas pengeluaran Angkatan Amerika Syarikat di Afghanistan," dan menambah bahawa maklumat lanjut akan dibebaskan selepas ulasan.
Kerajaan Amerika Syarikat sedang dlm proses perkembangan turun dari anggota tentera sekarang di Afghanistan kira-kira 26,000 kepada kuasa hanya di bawah 10,000, yang akan tinggal dalam peranan terutamanya nasihat.
Avots juga berkata Jabatan Pertahanan Amerika Syarikat & Tentera Udara Ame-rika Syarikat masih memutuskan apa yang perlu dilakukan dengan 4 pesawat di Jerman.
SIGAR telah menyiasat perbelanjaan membazir mungkin pada pesawat perang sejak akhir tahun 2013, berikutan soalan yang dikemukakan oleh pegawai-pegawai tentera dan pertubuhan-pertubuhan bukan keuntungan.
Sopko telah berkata bahawa dia tidak tahu jika perolehan pesawat membazir adalah disebabkan oleh apa-apa niat jahat jenayah atau hanya salah urus, tetapi bahawa "besi buruk" Insiden di Afghanistan bukan kes terpencil.
Pada bulan Jun, walaupun Afghanistan menjadi negara daratan, pengawal kera-jaan Amerika Syarikat mendapati bahawa Pentagon membelanjakan lebih dari-pada $ 3 juta mendapatkan 8 bot peronda ‘eight patrol boats’ yang tidak pernah digunakan. Selain itu, kos setiap bot ternyata menjadi kira-kira $ 375,000 - jauh lebih daripada $ 50,000 mereka biasanya menjual di Amerika Syarikat.
Semasa penyiasatannya, Sopko berkata rekod yang berkaitan dengan pembelian dan pembatalan daripada bot peronda telah teruk kurang, & soalan untuk tentera tidak mengakibatkan jawapan yang mencukupi.
"Pihak tentera telah dapat menyediakan rekod yang akan menjawab soalan yang paling asas ini sekitar pembelian $ 3 juta," pejabatnya memberitahu Washington Post dalam satu kenyataan pada bulan Jun.
The Defense Logistics Agency was responsible for destroying the planes and Sopko now wants to know if any of the parts of the planes were sold before they were sent for scrap metal.
Major Bradlee Avots, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the 16 aircraft at Kabul International Airport had been destroyed “to minimize impact on drawdown of US Forces in Afghanistan,” and added that more information would be released after a review. The US government is currently in the process of scaling down from its present military personnel in Afghanistan of around 26,000 to a force of just under 10,000, who will be staying in a mainly advisory role.
Avots also said that the US Department of Defense and the US Air Force were still deciding what to do with the four aircraft in Germany.
SIGAR has been investigating possible wasteful spending on warplanes since the end of 2013, following questions raised by military officials and non-profit organizations.
Sopko has said that he does not know if wasteful plane procurement was due to any criminal malice or was just mismanagement, but that the “scrap metal” incident in Afghanistan was not an isolated case.
In June, despite Afghanistan being a landlocked country, a US government watch-dog found that the Pentagon spent more than $3 million obtaining eight patrol boats that were never used. Additionally, the cost of each boat turned out to be about $375,000 – far more than the $50,000 they usually sell for in the US.
During his investigation, Sopko said that records related to the purchase and cancelation of the patrol boats were severely lacking, and his questions to the military have not resulted in adequate answers.
“The military has been unable to provide records that would answer the most basic questions surrounding this $3 million purchase,” his office told the Washington Post in a statement in June.
READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/r023p4
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