U.S. government wastes $28 million of taxpayer money on wrong Afghan Army uniforms

The Pentagon wasted $28 million purchasing uniforms for the Afghan National Army, according to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said Thursday the U.S. government was “trying to please the Afghans,” adding that they “didn’t think this over very well.”

“The Army wanted something that looked different than the police, but the police have a uniform that is not proprietary, in other words, owned by one company which costs up to 40 percent more,” Schatz said during an interview on FOX Business. “It matches the terrain, so they need to change this. If they don’t change it they will waste another $ 71 billion dollars over the next 10 years, according to this report.”

The camouflage pattern uniforms cost U.S. taxpayers an additional 43 percent compared to other uniforms procured by the Department of Defense for ANA Commandos and several Afghan National Police, and if changed, “could save U.S. taxpayers between $68.61 million - $72.21 million over the next 10 years,” the report found.

“The original intent was to make it harder for the enemy to infiltrate the Army, to copy a uniform from a pattern that might be on the internet,” Schatz said. “But what they’ve done is probably made themselves better targets, because you’ve got a forest uniform in the desert. So, it’s pretty easy to see them.”