Cash Glitch Delays Afghan Work: General--Toronto Star

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2//The Toronto Star, Canada Oct. 17, 2006. 05:45 AM

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename...

CASH GLITCH DELAYS AFGHAN WORK: GENERAL

Bruce Campion-Smith, Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA—Canada's military says it isn't to blame for the lack of major reconstruction work in the Kandahar area, citing instead a federal agency's failure to deliver promised cash.

Brig.-Gen. Al Howard told a Senate committee yesterday that the provincial reconstruction team is ready to proceed with several projects but can't because it's still waiting for the Canadian International Development Agency to deliver the cash.

"There are a few funding glitches," he said. "There are a number of projects where we are just waiting to get additional money."

That delay in getting redevelopment projects off the ground is putting the lives of Canadian soldiers at risk as they struggle to contain a swelling insurgency in southern Afghanistan, said Senator Colin Kenny, who chairs the Senate committee on national security and defence.

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But Howard's revelation about funding tie-ups seemed to catch senators by surprise. And it seemed to confirm their own suspicions — delivered earlier this month — that little reconstruction is underway in the Kandahar region.

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