The US Navy “didn’t have satisfactory inside controls to stop overexecution” of allotted funds, the division’s watchdog has stated
The US Navy has overspent lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in help to Ukraine as a consequence of recurring accounting errors, in keeping with a Pentagon watchdog’s report that warned the service department might not have the funds to cowl the shortfall subsequent time.
The report launched on Tuesday by the US Division of Protection Workplace of Inspector Common (OIG) acknowledged that “the Navy overexecuted its funding 3 times throughout fiscal yr 2022” when it got here to Ukraine supplemental help.
Whereas the US Navy appropriated round $1.7 billion in funds to Ukraine, the watchdog discovered that the department “overexecuted its allotment of Ukraine help funds… totaling $398.9 million.” The overspending was as a result of Navy’s failure to handle long-standing issues with its automated accounting system.
In consequence, accounting errors needed to be corrected manually on a number of events, main the OIG to emphasize that “the Navy didn’t have satisfactory inside controls to stop over-execution of funds from reoccurring.” It added that the army department additionally centered on figuring out errors after that they had already taken place, reasonably than stopping them.
The OIG warned that whereas the Navy had sources to cowl the distinction, “such funds might not be out there sooner or later.”
Whereas the US has grow to be considered one of Ukraine’s most distinguished donors, with Washington allocating round $113 billion to the embattled nation because the begin of the battle, main issues have arisen about misuse of the funds.
An OIG report in January discovered that the Pentagon didn’t correctly monitor $1 billion value of weapons and different army gear. This got here amid the White Home’s long-standing assurances that there was no proof that weapons had been stolen, regardless of Ukraine’s fame for rampant corruption.
Furthermore, the Pentagon watchdog introduced final month that it had opened greater than 50 circumstances into attainable “theft, fraud or corruption, and diversion” of army help to Ukraine. One of many circumstances highlighted by Robert Storch, the OIG head, concerned objects arriving in Poland earlier than disappearing from a transport manifest as soon as they have been despatched throughout the border into Ukraine.
Russia has constantly denounced the arms shipments and repeatedly warned of weapons spillover, alleging that the gear finds its approach onto the black market and into the arms of organized crime and terrorists.
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