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America Wasted $160 Million Trying To Get Afghanistan To Use E-Payments
Slashdot ^ | 8/24/2017 | msmash@slashdot.org

Posted on 08/24/2017 10:46:36 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie

The country might be home to America's longest-running war, but the US has spent more time, energy, and money trying to rebuild Afghanistan than it has spent killing the Taliban. American taxpayers send billions to Kabul every year and every year billions disappear into the pockets of Afghan government officials. Electronic payment systems would go a long way to solving that problem. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) wanted to do just that. The Agency figured if it could convince those at corruption hotspots, such as customs agents and border guards, to use e-payment methods, then it might curb the amount of cash those agents pocketed every day.

(Excerpt) Read more at slashdot.org ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; corruption; taxes
The money pit.
1 posted on 08/24/2017 10:46:36 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

I thought Trump got NATO to pay for this war..?


2 posted on 08/24/2017 10:53:11 AM PDT by sickoflibs (Message to Trump : I am not tired of winning yet. Please more winning ! Get your crap together fast!)
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To: sickoflibs

The gas station?


3 posted on 08/24/2017 10:54:05 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

“What I Saw and Learned in Southeast Asia and Why I Left InspiredPosted by Chelsea Clinton, Board Member, Clinton Foundation; Special Correspondent, NBC News on Thursday, June 6th 2013”

https://blog.usaid.gov/tag/clinton-foundation/


4 posted on 08/24/2017 10:54:11 AM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

Meanwhile, Obama sends pallets of cash to terrorists in Iran. Why wouldn’t criminals/terrorists in other countries demand the same untraceable payments?


5 posted on 08/24/2017 10:55:05 AM PDT by LostPassword
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To: LostPassword

The US Government E-Payments to mud huts program

Can’t make this stuff up

Most parts of Afghanistan have donkey cart service not 4G wireless


6 posted on 08/24/2017 11:09:44 AM PDT by rdcbn
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To: LostPassword

When I went to Russia a few years ago the company that sent me there had to pay for my visa three times. As in three times for the same paperwork before they would give it over. The rep I talked to said it wasn’t unusual at all when dealing with Russians.

This is the level of incompetence in a bureaucracy. These dolts thought we could eliminate corruption by introducing technology to a country build on mud huts! Ha!

Strangely, it is this same incompetence that comforts me that if at some point in the future we as a nation turn on our freedoms and start all kinds of tracking programs they’ll never get it all figured out. Corruption and incompetence are brothers.


7 posted on 08/24/2017 11:12:34 AM PDT by siberianheat
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

Might as well try and explain title insurance to your dog.


8 posted on 08/24/2017 11:16:02 AM PDT by dainbramaged (Get out of my country now)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

USAID was also directly involved in getting India to radically and suddenly move to e-transfer payment for everything. Overnight, India banned all large cash bills.

I have not been in India since this occurred late last year, but I am told now that even vegetable sellers in the local street markets now have moved to electronic card-swipe devices.

Isn’t it odd that USAID suddenly has become the bureaucratic desk for globalist plans to move to cashless society?


9 posted on 08/24/2017 11:20:19 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: PGR88
#9: "Isn’t it odd that USAID suddenly has become the bureaucratic desk for globalist plans to move to cashless society?"

Interesting observation, and boggles the mind—people in mud huts with debit cards! Yes, if they can get all of the turd worlders on-board, then our politicians will sell try to sell it to us peons: "See, everybody does it; not a problem!".

There is a quote I like in one of the linked articles: "Cash, the ultimate crypto-currency."
 

10 posted on 08/24/2017 11:27:01 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie
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To: Governor Dinwiddie
The Agency figured if it could convince those at corruption hotspots, such as customs agents and border guards, to use e-payment methods, then it might curb the amount of cash those agents pocketed every day.

Why would "the Agency" believe that they could persuade corrupt officials to adopt a payment method that would put them out of the bribery business?

Is the anybody at "the Agency" with an IQ above room temperature?
11 posted on 08/24/2017 11:27:09 AM PDT by Milton Miteybad (I am Jim Thompson. {Really.})
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To: Milton Miteybad
Is the anybody at "the Agency" with an IQ above room temperature?

Which should read: Is there anybody at "the Agency" with an IQ above room temperature?
12 posted on 08/24/2017 11:28:11 AM PDT by Milton Miteybad (I am Jim Thompson. {Really.})
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To: siberianheat

A woman that works for me is trying to get her degree and is on the Ready to Work program. She gets food stamps, medicaid and state funds, called KTAP. Unlike most on this program she shows up on time, does her job and is passing her classes with a 3.5 gpa. She is one of the few actually trying for a better life.

This morning she said she got a stack of letters from the food stamp office, medicaid and KTAP. ALL were dated on the same date. One letter said her food stamps were cancelled, another said she would be getting this amount next month. Another said her and her sons medicaid was cancelled another said their new cards would arrive shortly for next month. One letter said her KTAP was cancelled and another said this is how much you will receive next month.

So she calls the appropriate agency, spend 30 minutes on the phone to find out which letter is true only to be told since she draws KTAP, she can’t talk to the food stamp office or medicaid it has to be KTAP, so they transfer her and proceed to cut her off and she goes to the back of the line. Normally a check drawing parasite having issues with the wormy bureaucrats wouldn’t phase me one bit and in fact would bring a chuckle but this gal is actually busting her butt and trying for a better life. So tomorrow her day off, she gets to take two months worth of pay stubs and documentation from our HR showing how long she has been working here BACK to them even after turning it all in in July.

So the US government spending $160 million to people who still use the barter system doesn’t surprise me one bit, these people are dirt clod dumb. But a bureaucrat has to do what the have to do to make themselves appear relevant whether here or in Russia or the sandbox.


13 posted on 08/24/2017 11:48:41 AM PDT by sarge83
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

That money went to some contractor/company that was happy to get it, and no doubt lobbies for more and more.


14 posted on 08/24/2017 12:28:41 PM PDT by Wolfie
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To: Milton Miteybad
Why would "the Agency" believe that they could persuade corrupt officials to adopt a payment method that would put them out of the bribery business?

Yeah, it's mind boggling.
And, to boot, the NGOs and the local gangs all get a cut no one's supposed to see.

15 posted on 08/24/2017 12:36:39 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

Remember that in Africa, almost everyone has a cell ‘phone. They lack indoor plumbing but they have cell phones. They mostly also never had ‘land line’ phones...

...If they use cells, they might quickly learn to use debit cards.


16 posted on 08/24/2017 12:55:03 PM PDT by A Formerly Proud Canadian (I once was blind but now I see...)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

We don’t have enough problems dealing with savage third-worlders from points south, we have to go to the other side of the world to deal with, import and take incoming from even more exotic primitives.
MAGA The rest of the world can take care of itself.


17 posted on 08/24/2017 1:21:29 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie
17 years post 9/11.

What is there to show for it beside dead Americans and trillions down the toilet?

18 posted on 08/24/2017 1:23:53 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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