![FILE PHOTO: he Pentagon building is seen in Arlington, Virginia, U.S.](https://turan.az/resized/news/2024/nMblAtIijdXvc7KSGs1raI0Lw6NngEXkzyGmLvod-750-500-resize.webp)
FILE PHOTO: he Pentagon building is seen in Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Pentagon finds another $2 billion of accounting errors for Ukraine aid
Reuters: The Pentagon has found $2 billion worth of additional errors in its calculations for ammunition, missiles and other equipment sent to Ukraine, increasing the improperly valued material to a total of $8.2 billion, a U.S. government report revealed on Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Defense has faced challenges in accurately valuing defense articles sent to Ukraine due to unclear accounting definitions, a new Government Accountability Office report showed.
In 2023, the Pentagon said staff used "replacement value" instead of "depreciated value" to tabulate the billions in materials sent to Ukraine. The $6.2 billion error created a path for billions more to be sent to Kyiv.
The Pentagon told the GAO that since then, $2 billion more in overstatements have been found. As a result, an additional $2 billion worth of arms can be sent to Ukraine to cover the amount of aid approved by the Biden administration.
The GAO said a vague definition of value in the Foreign Assistance Act and the absence of specific valuation guidance for Presidential Drawdown Authority have led to inconsistencies in the reported value of military aid.
In one example cited in the GAO report, 10 vehicles were valued at $7,050,000 when the supporting documentation showed they should have been valued at zero, their net book value.
The GAO has recommended that Congress clarify the definition of value in the context of defense articles under Presidential Drawdown Authority.
Additionally, the GAO has issued seven recommendations to the Defense Department, urging it to update its guidance to include a PDA-specific valuation section and develop component-specific valuation procedures. The department said it has concurred with all recommendations and outlined actions to address these issues.
In World
-
Saboteurs attacked France's TGV high-speed train network in coordinated actions that caused chaos on the country's busiest rail lines ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.
-
Kamala Harris signaled a major shift on US Gaza policy Thursday, with the presidential hopeful telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seal a peace deal and insisting she would not be "silent" on the suffering in the Palestinian enclave.
-
The solar system's tiniest planet may be hiding a big secret. Using data from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, scientists have determined that a 10-mile-thick diamond mantle may lie beneath the crust of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.
-
A marine tanker carrying industrial fuel sank in rough seas off the Philippines on Thursday, causing the death of a crew member and an oil spill that could spread to waters off the capital Manila, officials said.
Leave a review