WASHINGTON: The Pentagon violated US law when it controversially swapped a soldier held in captivity for five years in Afghanistan for five Taliban detainees without giving lawmakers sufficient notice, congressional investigators said on Thursday.

The Pentagon used $988,400 of its wartime funding for the transfer that freed Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.

The Government Accountability Office said President Barack Obama’s administration violated a section of the Department of Defence Appropriations Act, which bars the agency from using federal funds to transfer any Guantanamo detainees without giving key committees in Congress at least 30 days’ notice.

“In addition,” the GAO said in its finding, “because DoD used appropriated funds to carry out the transfer when no money was available for that purpose, DoD violated the Antideficiency Act,” which prohibits federal agencies from spending funds not expressly appropriated for the purpose.

With the new law, Obama gained some flexibility in transferring prisoners from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But he was still required to notify Congress 30 days in advance.

“In our view, the meaning of section 8111 of the Department of Defence Appropriations Act, 2014, is clear and unambiguous,” the GAO wrote in its decision sent to nine Senate Republicans.

The GAO said lawmakers were advised by telephone of the decision to make the swap on May 31 — the day it took place — and June 1, and received written notice on June 2.

At the time, Republicans — and even some of Obama’s Democratic allies — fumed over what they considered a bad and dangerous deal.

The White House and Pentagon defended the transfer, arguing that protecting American lives was the executive branch’s constitutional obligation.

They cited Bergdahl’s rapidly deteriorating health and security to justify quick action and keeping Congress in the dark.

“We believe it was lawfully done and lawfully conducted and this was a judgment shared with the Justice Department,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told CNN after the GAO released its findings.

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has said the deal brokered by Qatar represented the “last, best opportunity” to ensure Bergdahl’s freedom.

Bergdahl disappeared from his post at a base in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009. To get him back, five senior Taliban leaders were released from Guantanamo and sent to Qatar, where they are due to remain for one year.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014