Dive Brief:
-
Construction delays and budget overruns at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, have resulted in the use of temporary buildings there that may not be secure enough for American personnel working in a dangerous city, the General Accountability Office reported Thursday.
-
Congress’s investigative arm, the GAO recommended that the State Department develop security standards for temporary buildings in war zones, according to the Associated Press.
-
The eight-year construction project is three years behind schedule and approximately 27% over budget, and is expected to be finished in 2017. In the meantime, the State Department has spent more than $100 million on temporary buildings as embassy staff in Kabul has expanded, but "has no security standard tailored to those facilities," GAO reported. The final tally could be around $2 billion.
Dive Insight:
State responded that a surge in U.S. forces a few years ago, followed by a drawdown of Americans from the city, threw construction off course. But at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., said the government could have anticipated those changes and "baked in" the added costs.
"We shouldn’t be shocked that a war broke out," he said at the hearing. "There's been a war going on there for 10 or 12 years."
