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WASHINGTON —Two U.S. State Department bureaus could not prove compliance with internal policies for vetting aid groups in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan that received $293 million in funds, raising a risk that extremists may have profited, a U.S. watchdog said on Wednesday.
"It is critical that State knows who is actually benefitting from this assistance in order to prevent the aid from being diverted to the Taliban or other sanctioned parties," said the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, report.
The Taliban, the report said, have tried to obtain U.S. aid funds "through several means, including the establishment of humanitarian organizations," underscoring the need for the department to "fully and consistently assess the risks posed by its implementing partners."
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
SIGAR said three of five State Department bureaus were found in compliance with department regulations requiring vetting of aid fund recipients.
But the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs could not provide enough documentation to prove their adherence.
"State could not demonstrate compliance with its partner vetting requirements on awards that disbursed at least $293 million in Afghanistan," the report continued.
For that reason, "there is an increased risk that terrorists and terrorist-affiliated individuals and entities may have illegally benefitted," it said.
The department agreed with the report's conclusions and said it would "work to ensure compliance" with vetting requirements.
The United States remains the largest aid donor to impoverished Afghanistan, nearly three years after the Taliban seized Kabul as the last U.S. troops completed a chaotic pullout following 20 years of war with the Islamist militants.
Since the U.S. withdrawal was completed on August 30, 2021, Washington has provided more than $17.9 billion in assistance to Afghanistan.
Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.