Another $800,000,000 down the drain

It's amazing how many of my posts about Aghanistan have included the words "down the drain" in their titles. I have not added up the money wasted, but it is likely in the billions. 

The latest report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) talks about the Task Force for Stability and Business Operations (TFBSO). This Task Force was disbanded earlier this year after it had spent $800,000,000. When SIGAR started asking questions about the Task Force, DOD said that, since the Task Force was disbanded, there was no one to answer the questions.

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction decided to concentrate on the Task Force's Downstream Gas Utilization project  to construct a compressed natural gas (CNG) automobile filling station in the city of Sheberghan, Afghanistan. The main purpose of the project was to demonstrate the commercial viability of CNG for automobiles in Afghanistan as part of a broader effort to take advantage of Afghanistan’s domestic natural gas reserves and reduce the country’s reliance on energy imports. 

The project cost SIGAR almost $43,000,000. Yet Pakistan was able to build a CNG station for $500,000. SIGAR could find no trace of a feasibility study to determine the potential return on the investment. Had they done so, they may have discovered that converting a gasoline-powered car to run on CNG would be very expensive for the average Afghan. TFBSO’s contractor, CADG, states that conversion to CNG costs $700 per car; other sources estimate that it costs up to $800.18 According to the World Bank, the average annual income in Afghanistan is $690. 

Was there a market for CNG?