Is Pakistan worth the aid, asks US

In this part of the world, in many parts of the world, there's always a tendency to pad the contracts: US official.

Pakistan, US weigh aid calculus has air forces, and $30 million for roads and $15 million for bunkers that were not actually built.

The navy received more than $19,000 per vehicle each month just to maintain and operate a fleet of 20 passenger vehicles.

Between 2004 and 2007, Pakistan billed the US government $200 a month per soldier in food costs – it fluctuated between $500 and $800 for sailors. That's between 2.5 and 9.6 times Pakistan's per-capita annual income, which was just over $1,000 in 2009.

When the Office of Defense Representative-Pakistan (ODRP) began to more rigorously verify the Pakistani claims after that 2008 GAO report, the percentage of claims that were rejected doubled in six months to 6 percent and then more than tripled to 22 percent in the next six-month period.

For example, in the first two quarters of fiscal year 2010, Pakistan submitted claims of $531 million and $530 million. The United States paid out $263 million and $326 million.

"We certainly get claims that we have questions about," a US official in Islamabad told Reuters. The official asked for anonymity to speak candidly about the relationship.

Another senior US official dryly added: "In this part of the world, in many parts of the world, there's always a tendency to pad the contracts."

The more rigorous accounting and slower disbursement has added another irritant to the uneasy partnership. Pakistan is at pains to point out that much of the money it gets is not really aid but a reimbursement of expenses it incurs in fighting the US-led war on terrorism.

Pakistan's Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the military gets reimbursed for things like fuel, maintenance of equipment and vehicles, and maintaining soldiers in the field.

He said the money goes first to the finance ministry, and then to the defence ministry before it is allocated to the military.

Pakistan is one of the top recipients of US aid along with Egypt and Israel, but it has not bought America much popularity. Opinion surveys show an overwhelming majority of the Pakistani public holds an unfavourable view of their ostensible ally.

"In the long run, in the historic perspective, will we be able to say it was worth it? Or will historians be able to say that?" mused the senior US official. "I really don't know at this point."