Afghans May Get IRS Gear
About 1,000 Internal Revenue Service computers would be shipped to Afghanistan to help the country it rebuild its Finance Ministry under a proposal by the Bush administration.
The 2-year-old desktop and laptop computers, which are being phased out at the IRS, would enable the Afghan government to better keep track of its finances, including foreign aid, and to monitor the banking system for evidence of money laundering and other suspicious activity.
“The Bush administration is committed to rebuilding Afghanistan, and this would be a creative way of doing that,” Treasury Department spokesman Rob Nichols said.
Much of the Afghan government’s equipment is out of date, some was pillaged during years of war, and some was destroyed by the now-deposed Taliban regime.
The administration will ask Congress for $200,000 for the transportation and installation of the equipment as part of an upcoming supplemental spending request.
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