Afghan companies with insurgent ties pose challenge for US

The US is facing challenges in Afghanistan in weeding out suspicious contractors who are hired to build critical infrastructure in the war-torn country but are suspected of having ties to insurgents, including the Taliban and the dreaded Haqqani network.
Despite the development of contractor blacklists and other requirements, American investigators have uncovered a new case that casts doubt on the US military's ability to "weed out suspicious contractors from the thousands who work with the United States to build bases, ship supplies and carry out myriad other tasks", The New York Times reported.
It cited the case of an Afghan company Zurmat Material Testing Laboratory, which was paid to work at an American- controlled facility in November 2012, despite having been blacklisted two months before for providing bomb-making materials to insurgents.

According to a review of internal Pentagon communications, the United States Central Command, which oversees the war in Afghanistan, had requested in 2012 that Zurmat and its subsidiaries, along with more than 40 other companies and individuals believed to have ties to insurgents, be "debarred" by the Army, the report said.
The contractors had collectively been awarded more than USD 150 million in work for the American-led coalition over a 10-year period.
Pentagon officials have so far refused to issue the bans on the contractors saying evidence against Zurmat and the other companies consists largely of classified intelligence.

This information cannot be shown to the accused contractors and so debarment would violate their right to due process.

"It's like we're subsidising the people who are shooting at our soldiers," said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire.
US lawmakers have expressed anger at the Pentagon's refusal to ban contractors suspected of having ties to militants, and they are pressing again to force it to cut off the money.
Zurmat was first blacklisted in April 2012 by the Commerce Department because it was accused of allegedly helping the feared Haqqani insurgent network in Afghanistan obtaining bomb-making materials.
Later, the military's Central Command had banned Zurmat from working on contracts within its area of operations, which stretches from the Middle East to Pakistan.

Employees at the Zurmat testing laboratory gained access in November 2012 to the then main American-run prison in Afghanistan, where the company performed safety tests on the construction work done by another contractor, CLC Construction.
The report said that Zurmat was investigated for doing shoddy construction work at the detention facility, which is adjacent to Bagram Air Base, one of the largest coalition bases in Afghanistan.