10 January 2011
Arnold Fields, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, speaks during a hearing in 2010.
A top US official responsible for purging corruption in the American reconstruction effort in Afghanistan has resigned, following sharp and repeated criticism by lawmakers of his performance.
The White House said Monday that retired major general Arnold Fields had tendered his resignation to President Barack Obama, and paid tribute to his work, though did not mention criticisms from Capitol Hill.
Last year, four Senators called on Obama to begin the process of firing Fields, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), saying he had failed to hire sufficient staff and and was failing to perform aggressive oversight of US operations. They also said his investigations had shown his office's work to be substandard and that he lacked a strategy for rooting out corruption.
The senators said they were also alarmed to hear that SIGAR awarded a 95,000-dollar contract to Joseph Schmitz, a former Defense Department inspector general to act as an independent monitor of the office's performance. In a letter to Obama, the senators, Claire McCaskill, Tom Coburn, Susan Collins and Charles Grassley, said Schmitz resigned from the Defense Department in 2005 amid allegations of misconduct.
However, the White House said Fields had produced numerous critical reports that had improved reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and helped ensure US-funded programs were achieving their objectives.
"General Fields' hard work and steadfast determination have established SIGAR as a critical oversight agency," the statement said, adding that Fields would leave knowing Obama was grateful for his courage and selfless service.
The issue of corruption has been one that has soured the relationship between the Afghan government and its Western backers, especially the United States. Critics say that the government in Kabul and the provinces is beset by widespread corruption which experts say undermines international efforts to build a democracy and defeat the Taliban. President Hamid Karzai's administration has hit back at the accusations, arguing that most of the corruption was in military contracts beyond the control of his administration.
News of the resignation of Fields came as Vice President Joe Biden flew into Afghanistan on a surprise visit.
Source: Breitbart.
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