ISLAMABAD: The United States’ two-decade effort to rebuild Afghanistan failed to achieve its core objectives despite unprecedented spending, according to a sweeping final audit released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).
The SIGAR Final Report, published in December 2025, is the last and most comprehensive official assessment of US-funded reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2025. The report was mandated by the US Congress ahead of SIGAR’s closure in January 2026 and serves as a forensic audit of nearly $148 billion spent on rebuilding the country.
“This report summarizes, for the first time in one document, the totality of SIGAR’s work overseeing the US reconstruction effort in Afghanistan,” the watchdog agency stated.
According to the report, the US allocated $144.7 billion for Afghanistan’s reconstruction between 2002 and 2021, of which $137.3 billion was spent.
SIGAR noted that US reconstruction spending in Afghanistan exceeded the inflation-adjusted cost of the post–World War II Marshall Plan in Europe.
Yet despite the scale of investment, the report concludes that the mission “ultimately delivered neither stability nor democracy.”
The audit identifies between $26 billion and $29.2 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse across US-funded programs. “Waste was the most prevalent issue identified,” accounting for 93% of the total losses, SIGAR reported.
The watchdog found that corruption within successive Afghan governments was one of the greatest obstacles to reconstruction. The report states that early US decisions to work with “corrupt, human-rights-abusing powerbrokers” undermined governance and strengthened the insurgency.
The report also documents thousands of “ghost employees” within Afghan security institutions and says fuel and supplies intended for Afghan forces were “stolen on a large scale.”
Nearly $90 billion was spent on Afghan security forces, including the purchase of 147,000 vehicles, 427,300 weapons, and 162 aircraft. Despite this, SIGAR concluded that Afghan forces “were unable to sustain themselves without a continued US military presence.”
“When US forces withdrew, Afghan security forces collapsed rapidly,” the report states.
Following the withdrawal, military equipment valued at $7.1 billion was left behind in Afghanistan.
In addition to reconstruction spending, the report noted that the United States spent an additional $763 billion on warfighting operations. More than 2,450 US servicemembers were killed, and over 20,700 were wounded during the conflict.
Despite the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the United States remained Afghanistan’s largest donor. SIGAR reported that $3.83 billion in US humanitarian and development assistance was disbursed over four years following the fall of Kabul.
“In the March 2025 quarter alone, disbursements totaled $120 million,” the report said.
The audit also found that Taliban authorities benefited indirectly from aid flows, noting that the group “continued to collect taxes and levies” on assistance programs.
SIGAR said multiple former senior US officials interviewed for the report believed that success in Afghanistan “may never have been achievable” given the mission’s scale and assumptions.
“The outcome in Afghanistan should serve as a cautionary tale for policymakers contemplating similar reconstruction efforts,” the report concluded, warning that future interventions must confront “the real possibility of failure.”
SIGAR will formally close on January 31, ending nearly 17 years of independent oversight of the US war and reconstruction effort in Afghanistan.
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