The U.S. Department of Defense has uncovered an additional $2 billion in accounting errors related to military aid sent to Ukraine, bringing the total amount of miscalculated materials to $8.2 billion, according to a government report released on Thursday.
Pentagon Faced Challenges
According to Ziare the Pentagon has faced significant challenges in accurately assessing the value of military equipment provided to Ukraine, largely due to ambiguous accounting definitions.
A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlights that in 2023, the Pentagon mistakenly used "replacement value" instead of "depreciated value" to calculate the billions in aid.
This error led to an initial overstatement of $6.2 billion in aid sent to Kyiv.
Wrong Valuation
The newly discovered $2 billion in errors means the U.S. may provide an additional $2 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine to align with the amounts previously approved by President Joe Biden’s administration.
The GAO attributes these discrepancies to unclear definitions in the Foreign Assistance Act and the lack of specific guidance for the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which allows the president to withdraw equipment for foreign aid.
One notable example from the GAO report describes how ten vehicles were valued at $7.05 million, despite documentation indicating their net book value should have been zero.
The GAO has recommended that Congress clarify the definition of value for defense items under PDA and has issued seven recommendations for the Department of Defense to update its guidelines. The Pentagon has agreed to implement these recommendations to address the inconsistencies.
