COLOMBIA'S WAR ON DRUGS ASSAILED

U.S. Audit Says Poor Plans Limit Success, Imperiling More Aid

WASHINGTON -- Poor planning has hampered U.S. drug-fighting efforts in
Colombia and could undermine a new $1.3 billion aid package, congressional
auditors said in a draft report.

"Although U.S.-provided assistance has enhanced Colombian counternarcotics
capabilities, it has sometimes been of limited utility because of
long-standing problems in planning and implementing its assistance," said
the draft report by the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative
branch. A copy was obtained by The Associated Press.

The report also expressed skepticism about Colombia's drug-fighting
abilities, saying it "has not demonstrated that it has the detailed plans,
management structure and funding necessary to effectively implement
programs" to meet its goals of cutting illegal drug production by 50
percent in six years.

It will take years before the new aid package brings results, the report
said, and costs for maintaining equipment bought under the plan are unknown
but "would be substantial."

The report "confirms our worst suspicions that the administration has
bungled the management of the initial program and the funds for trying to
resolve the problems in Colombia," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.

Mica, chairman of the House Government Reform's Criminal Justice, Drug
Policy and Human Resources subcommittee, has called State and Defense
department officials to testify at a hearing today about the report's
findings. The officials declined to comment before the hearing.

Republicans have long criticized the administration's anti-drug efforts in
Colombia, most recently denouncing delays in supplying new Black Hawk
helicopters, a key part of the aid package approved this summer.

The helicopters are intended to help Colombian military and police fight
leftist guerrillas who partly finance their insurgency by protecting drug
laboratories and fields of coca and poppy, the raw materials for cocaine
and heroin. Colombia is the largest supplier of cocaine to the United
States and a major source of heroin.

Until the Black Hawks become available, three new Colombian
counternarcotics battalions are supposed to use 33 U.S.-provided UH-1N
helicopters. The first 18 were delivered beginning in November. But the GAO
report said they were grounded for months because no money had been
budgeted for operating costs.

By the time money became available, 17 Colombian pilots trained to fly them
had been laid off and $2.2 million had to be spent to rehire and retrain
new personnel.

Similar problems had occurred before: The report noted that in 1998 and
1999, 32 helicopters had been provided to Colombian police but, because of
budget constraints, there weren't enough spare parts to support them.

The new aid package will provide another 30 Huey II helicopters, but the
State Department is uncertain if it has enough money to train pilots and
mechanics to operate them. The United States may also have to pay for
maintenance because Colombians lack the money, and U.S. officials don't
know how much that would cost, the report said.

"As in the past, State will have to request additional funding, reprogram
funds from other activities or permit some helicopters to go unused," the
report said.

It also said:

The U.S. Embassy in Bogota has made little progress in getting Colombian
police to carry out more of the coca eradication flights now handled by
expensive U.S. contractors.

Colombian police have failed to provide documents showing they are
complying with restrictions on how U.S. helicopters can be used. The police
generally can use the helicopters only for counternarcotics missions, but
embassy officials said they saw the helicopters being used for other
purposes on two occasions.

Of the $148 million in equipment and services the Pentagon agreed to give
Colombia from its own inventories during the last four years, only $57
million was provided.

The State Department Inspector General's office concluded that 459,000 of
2.3 million gallons of fuel given to Colombian police last year for
counternarcotics missions may have been misused.

In a separate report to be released today, a panel of experts said U.S. aid
should aim more at strengthening Colombia's system of government and less
on providing expensive military equipment.