$500K wasted on melted shooting range in Afghanistan, report

A half-million dollar taxpayer funded building complex in Afghanistan disintegrated in the desert heat within four months of it’s completion, according to new report released Thursday by the U.S.’ top watchdog in the country.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction wrote the dry fire shooting range (DFR), meant to be used for practice by the Afghan Special Police, melted into the desert due to shoddy construction by the contractor.

The problem was exacerbated when U.S. officials failed to oversee the construction, allowing the building to be completed with sub-par materials.

The building was determined unsustainable and later demolished. It is now being rebuilt with funds from the Ministry of Interior.

“Although this project may have been well intentioned, the fact that the Afghans had to demolish and rebuild the DFR is not only an embarrassment, but, more significantly, a waste of U.S. taxpayers’ money,” the report reads.

The building cost taxpayers a whopping $456,669 and was designed to replicate a typical Afghan village for police trainees to conduct simulated missions.

The U.S. government accepted the project as complete on Oct. 20, 2012, setting in motion a one year warranty period provided under the contract, according to SIGAR’s report.

However several structural problems with the building’s roofing and drainage system were evident when investigators conducted their audit.

The contractor installed roofs using plastic sheeting with a concrete cap instead of building paper with gravel and asphalt on top as the contract called for and the interior supporting beams were poorly installed, according to the report.

The roof was not sloped to allow water to drain properly and the gutter system had gaps allowing water to drain down the side of the building.

SIGAR issued four recommendations to the U.S. Central Command’s Joint Theater Support Contracting Command, urging the agency to determine the extend of the contract failure and come up with appropriate disciplinary actions for the contractor and oversight officers.