Reuters, November 2, 2015

Pentagon spent 43m USD on “world’s most expensive gas station” in Afghanistan

Department of Defense used taxpayers’ money from 2011 to 2014 to show compressed natural gas could be used in cars but abandoned operation in March

Petrol station in Sheberghan, Afghanistan that cost American taxpayers $43m. (Photo: SIGAR)

The US Department of Defense spent nearly $43m on a gas station in northern Afghanistan and has been unable to explain why it cost so much, according to a congressionally mandated inspector.

The Pentagon “charged the American taxpayers $43m for what is likely to be the world’s most expensive gas station”, said John Sopko, head of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar) on Monday. The amount was spent between 2011 and 2014 on construction and initial implementation of the station.

The gas station in Sheberghan opened in 2012 and was created to show that compressed natural gas could be used in Afghanistan in cars effectively.

However, the taskforce behind the project closed operations in March and for that reason, according to the report, the Department of Defense said it did not possess “the personnel expertise to address these questions”.

“Frankly, I find it both shocking and incredible that (the Defense Department) asserts that it no longer has any knowledge,” the report said. It added that the taskforce reported directly to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and was an $800m program.

The report found that a compressed natural gas filling station in neighboring Pakistan costs no more than $500,000 to construct. That would make the gas station in Afghanistan more than 140 times more expensive.

A Defense Department spokesman said the Pentagon continues to provide access to documents to Sigar through a reading room.

“Further, we have offered to assist Sigar in locating and contacting any former TFBSO (Task Force for Business and Stability Operations) personnel they wish to interview,” said Army Lieutenant Colonel Joe Sowers.

Nearly $110bn has been appropriated in Washington for reconstruction in Afghanistan since 2002, when US forces drove the Taliban from power for harboring militants from al-Qaida, which carried out the September 11 attacks.

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