US audit says Afghan forces overrated: report

A US government audit has found deficiencies in the training of Afghan security forces, the Pentagon said Monday following a newspaper report that said their capabilities had been overrated.
The Financial Times said the findings of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction cast doubt on a 25 billion dollar effort to build up the country's security forces, a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's exit strategy.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman acknowledged that the audit, which has not been released yet, reviewed the adequacy of the training of the Afghan security forces and found "some shortcomings in there."
"I'm sure the command will be addressing it," he said.
General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, immediately changed the method for assessing Afghan security forces upon being briefed on the audit findings, Susan Phalen, a spokeswoman for the auditors said.
However, she declined to say whether the audit found that the previous method had inflated the capabilities of the Afghanistan security forces.
Phalen said the report was in its final phase but was still under review.
The Financial Times said the report will say the standards used to appraise the Afghan military and police from 2005 until recently were woefully inadequate.
The old rating system measured forces on factors such as equipment and training rather than anything more accurately reflecting their fighting abilities, the audit will say, according to the FT.
"It became clear to us that the assessment wasn't giving a clear picture of the actual operational readiness of Afghan National Security Forces," said Colonel Dennis Devery, deputy director of the ANSF assistance bureau.The report looked at the surge in Afghan army units considered "fully capable" for combat. None met the standard before 2008, but 22 units were considered ready by May 2009.
"The system deliberately exaggerated the combat capacity of Afghan troops, and it disguised the true level of attrition and desertion," said Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
A new assessment system is now in place, measuring troop units on their operational effectiveness.
Afghanistan's ability to take over responsibility for securing its borders and quelling the Taliban insurgency is seen as vital to Western plans to end engagement in a war NATO and its allies have been fighting since 2001.