WASHINGTON — An independent U.S. panel investigating wartime spending estimates that as much as $60 billion has been lost to waste and fraud over the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In its final report to Congress, the Commission on Wartime Contracting said the figure could grow larger as U.S. support for reconstruction projects and programs wanes and Iraq and Afghanistan are unable to sustain the schools, medical clinics, roads and power plants already built with American tax dollars.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the commission's report in advance of its scheduled Wednesday public release.
The commission says that in Afghanistan, the insurgency's second largest funding source after the illegal drug trade is the diversion of money from U.S.-backed construction projects and transportation contracts.
Congress established the commission in 2008.
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