Management Advisory: DoD Support for the Relocation of Afghan Nationals at Fort Pickett, Virginia (DODIG-2022-055)

What We Did:

The purpose of this management advisory is to provide the officials responsible for receiving, housing, supporting, and preparing Afghan evacuees for movement to their final resettlement location the results from our site visit to Task Force (TF) Pickett at Fort Pickett, Virginia. The audit team visited TF Pickett from September 24 through 27, 2021. We conducted the work on this project with integrity, objectivity, and independence, as required by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency’s Quality Standards for Federal Offices of Inspector General. Our review of TF Pickett operations at Fort Pickett was conducted as part of the “Audit of DoD Support for the Relocation of Afghan Nationals (Project No. D2021-D000RJ-0154.000).”

What We Found:

TF Pickett personnel did not have controls in place to ensure accountability of the 5,878 Afghan evacuees under their supervision. As of September 27, 2021, TF Pickett personnel had not performed any accountability checks of Afghan evacuees after initial in-processing. During our site visit, there was no physical way to identify Afghan evacuees, such as a lanyard with an identity card. This caused accountability issues throughout all processes of Afghan evacuee sustainment. According to TF Pickett personnel, there were instances where Afghan evacuees switched cohorts, which led to confusion since TF Pickett personnel tracked Afghan evacuees specifically by cohorts when scheduling medical appointments or meetings with DOS personnel. By contrast, at other military installations supporting OAW, such as Fort Lee, TF Eagle personnel conducted 100-percent daily accountability checks of all Afghan evacuees on base and required Afghan evacuees to wear badges with unique identifiers.

TF Pickett security personnel acknowledged that at Fort Lee, Afghan evacuees wore badges for identification, as well as to keep track of issues and medical records throughout the DOS assurance process. TF Pickett security personnel stated that this technique would be useful, but the significant number of Afghan evacuees at TF Pickett made it difficult to implement. Specifically, Fort Lee had approximately 1,700 Afghan evacuees while TF Pickett had more than 5,000, with the expectation of an increase to 10,000 Afghan evacuees. However, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (TF Liberty), which housed a similar number of Afghan evacuees as TF Pickett, the audit team found TF Liberty personnel implemented a similar identification system using wristbands with a unique four-digit number for each Afghan evacuee.

We discussed the lack of accountability of Afghan evacuees with the TF Pickett Commander during the exit conference on September 27, 2021. As a result, in October 2021, according to TF Pickett personnel, they started conducting accountability checks to ensure accountability of each Afghan evacuee. Specifically, every 72 hours TF Pickett personnel used the housing roster and each Afghan evacuee’s Hummingbird number to ensure accountability.

What We Recommend: