State’s Inspector General Says Failed Oversight on ArmorGroup ‘Will Be Made Public’

At a House Oversight subcommittee hearing on Afghanistan, the State Department’s inspector general, Howard Geisel, made his first public comments about ArmorGroup, the State Department security contractor accused of physical and sexual harassment. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) asked Geisel, whose office has opened an investigation into the oversight of ArmorGroup’s contract to protect the U.S. embassy in Kabul, “who bears responsibility” for the company’s abuses.

Geisel wouldn’t “confirm that we have a criminal investigation underway,” but said that when his just-dispatched inspectors get to Afghanistan, they’ll look at “oversight over this contract” to determine “who failed on the job and who should be held responsible. And that will be made public.” He would not say when exactly his office was informed about allegations of ArmorGroup’s alarming behavior, which has a years-long pedigree.

Flake added that the apparent inability of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security to manage ArmorGroup raised questions about how the government can more broadly oversee the billions that the United States is spending on Afghanistan. “It gives me pause too, sir,” Geisel said.