Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of U.S. Army equipment and supplies in Afghanistan have been lost or are unaccounted for, a report from the Department of Defense Inspector General said.
“Since 2010, 309 forward operating bases [in Afghanistan] have closed and only a fraction of lost items from previous [inventory loss investigations] have been located. For example, between 2006 and 2010, there were 174,247 pieces of equipment listed as unaccounted for […], valued at $429.5 million…. As of May 30, 2014, only 40,690 (23 percent) of the total pieces of equipment and $191.1 million (44 percent) of the total dollar amount have been recovered,” the IG report said.
That paragraph in the report was marked “For Official Use Only,” as was the report as a whole. Accordingly, the report has not been officially released to the public. (The findings of the report were previously reported by Bloomberg News).
The October 30 report is entitled “The Army Needs to Improve the Processes for Reporting Inventory Losses in Afghanistan.”
In the Department of Defense, “For Official Use Only” applies to unclassified records that may be exempt from mandatory disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. It is not clear how the FOUO marking might be justified in this case.
When a hurricane hits, it’s all hands on deck – that goes for federal data, too. Pulling back from our investments in timely, accurate, and accessible public data will only make us less prepared and put us all at greater risk.
This is bigger than a singular elimination of race and ethnicity questions. It could accelerate the second wave of widespread reductions to demographic data, leaving public health officials with even less information to deliver better health outcomes for all Americans.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.
FAS has partnered with ICLEI USA to launch the CRI Local Advisory Council.