It’s been an open secret for months, but government leaders in Kyrgyzstan have finally come out into the open with their aim: Bishkek wants full control of a US contract to supply aviation fuel to the Manas Transit Center.
The US government’s Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) has trouble accurately tracking the Pentagon’s convoluted efforts to source fuel for the US-led war in Afghanistan.
The United States and Kyrgyzstan appear to be on a collision course over potential surcharges on jet fuel consumed at a US military transit facility outside the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.
The governments of Kyrgyzstan and the United States are set to sign an amendment to the Manas Transit Center’s leasing agreement that will enable the purchases of aviation fuel directly from a Kyrgyz state-owned enterprise.
In a boost for Kyrgyzstan’s economic revival efforts, Russia has abolished an export tax on fuel. Imposed during the last days of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s administration, the Russian fuel tariff was widely seen as a trigger for political upheaval that buffeted Kyrgyzstan in 2010.
A new tax dispute over fuel supplies at a strategically important air base in Kyrgyzstan is looming. US diplomats are concerned that potential wrangling could impede the war effort in Afghanistan.
Mina Corp, the controversial aviation fuel supplier to the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan, is hitting back at official allegations of corrupt ties to the family of ex-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
Losing bidders in a recent tender to supply jet fuel to the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan have been contacted by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and encouraged to renew their offers.
A scheme to deceive Russia about the purpose of jet fuel purchases, carried out by Mina Corp and Red Star Enterprises, the two main fuel suppliers to the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan, undermined US diplomatic interests and jeopardized American and NATO military operations in Afghanistan, a US congressional report released December 21 asserts.
Mina Corp, the holder of a lucrative fuel-supply contract for the strategically important Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan, has accused Kyrgyz authorities of attempting to "disrupt and seize the fuel supply chain" at the base outside Bishkek.
