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| Jenderal William Ward (AFP) |
Washington, - A four-star general in the United States (U.S.) sanctions of dismissal and demotion. The cause, the general was using state funds amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars for the benefit of his personal tour.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's sanctions against General William 'Kip' Ward, who heads the U.S. military command in Africa. With this sanction means this four-star general be demoted three-star general.
"It would be retired with the rank of Lieutenant General," said a senior official at the Department of Defense who declined to be named, as reported by AFP on Wednesday (11/14/2012).
According to a senior defense official, General Kip deviating a large amount of funds the Pentagon budget. Funds should be for a business trip, it is used improperly. One of them is the Pentagon's budget travel by USD 82 thousand (USD 788 million).
Deviations fund budget, according to local media, including bringing the wife along on a business trip. When the center served in Bermuda, General Kip rented a suite at the five-star Fairmont hotel rate USD 747 (USD 7.1 million) per night. Not only that, his wife also uses armored vehicles without permission.
Gen. Kip, who served as Commander of AFRICOM in the period 2007-2011, has denied all the allegations.
While the results of the investigation of the Inspector General Department of Defense shows, General Kip had traveled for 11 days to Washington and Atlanta with the rest of his entourage which spent USD 129 thousand (USD 1.2 billion). Though business agenda they only last for 3 days. The main purpose of the visit was a private tour.
In addition, it is found that the general's wife Kip has always participated in the visit task, ie, 52 times out of a total of 79 visits. Then he was also to deliberately prolong the visit as much as 7 times for personal gain, but additional costs are included in reimbursement billed to his corps.
