Pentagon Happens to Find ‘Accounting Error’ Allowing Another $6.2 Billion for Ukraine
The discovery also just happened to occur towards the end of the fiscal year, and Congress doesn’t have as much money on hand to dole out.
President Joe Biden has sent around $35 billion to Ukraine in almost 18 months. Imagine how many people that money could feed here in America.
Ukraine wants more money since it’s launching a new counteroffensive against Russia.
Well, our Pentagon just happened to find an accounting error that allowed them to send another $6.2 billion to Ukraine. I’m not kidding:
SINGH: “Once we discovered this misvaluation, the Comptroller reissued guidance on March 31st clarifying how to value equipment in line with the financial management regulation and DOD policy to ensure we use the most accurate of accounting methods. We have confirmed that for F.Y. ’23 the final calculation is $3.6 billion and for F.Y. ’22 it is $2.6 billion, for a combined total of $6.2 billion. These valuation errors in no way limit or restricted the size of any of our PDAs or impacted the provision of support to Ukraine, and while the DOD — while the DOD retains the authority to utilize the recaptured PDA, this has no bearing on appropriated USAI or Ukraine PDA replenishment funding approved by Congress.”
The discovery also just happened to occur towards the end of the fiscal year, and Congress doesn’t have as much money on hand to dole out.
The $6.2 billion also allows the U.S. to meet its pledge of $40 billion to Ukraine:
Based on previous estimates announced June 13, the U.S. had committed more than $40 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded. Using the new calculation, the U.S. has actually provided less than $34 billion in aid.
Officials have not been able to give exact totals for the amount of money that remains for the drawdowns or for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides longer-term funding to purchase weapons, including some of the larger air defense systems.
The U.S. has approved four rounds of aid to Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion, totaling about $113 billion, with some of that money going toward replenishment of U.S. military equipment that was sent to the frontlines. Congress approved the latest round of aid in December, totaling roughly $45 billion for Ukraine and NATO allies. While the package was designed to last through the end of the fiscal year in September, much depends upon events on the ground, particularly as the new counteroffensive ramps up.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
How many decades has it been now since the bureaucrats in DC have been honest and factual about government?
That would be about 230 years I think.
It’s sorta like finding change in your pockets when doing laundry.
Like the guy in “Independence Day” said “You don’t think they really spend $600 on a hammer, do you?”
Judd Hirsch. That was an awesome scene.
I worked for the Army as a civilian. There standard accounting procedures are all a “mistake”.
Money isn’t the issue. You can print all the money you want, but if there are no weapons to buy it’s meaningless.
One Ukrainian Patriot battery fired 30 missiles in 2 minutes. Raytheon makes about 500 per year. NATO is essentially out of 155mm artillery shells.
A lot of the weapons we have given the Ukrainians were worn-out surplus. 78% of the Strykers needed repairs before they could go into battle.
The US is learning the hard way that printing money isn’t the answer to every problem. Maybe the Ukrainians could try dropping pallets of Benjamin’s on the Russian’s heads. And the Germans could burn Euros to stay warm this winter.
They’ll never learn because it’s not their money.
So when are we going to fire and prosecute all these venomous actors?
Alas, with the current regime, we won’t.
Our federalg government has degenerated into nothing more than a giant organized crime operation.
That’s not hyperbole, either.
Will somebody please confiscate Brandon’s Monopoly deck?
TANK ERROR IN YOUR FAVOR, COLLECT $6.2 BILLION
Does Brandon get his 10%?
I know people jailed for smaller errors than that. Mu8ch like coincidences I don’t think “ERRORS” happen in DC.
If you are Hunter Biden a 1.5 million dollar tax underpayment for two years is a “minor misdemeanor”. Someone should ask Wesley Snipes what he thinks about that.
Any corruption to worry about is in our defense industry. We’re not sending money but equipment. The question here is how to value old equipment that we’re sending, replacement cost or original cost and how much depreciation.
Congress probably didn’t specify so at first they used replacement cost until they hit $40 b and started using original cost.
Do what? We are absolutely sending money along with military equipment.
$27 Billion for ‘Economic Support Funding’
$7.9 Billion for ‘International Disaster Assistance’
$6.8 Billion for ‘Refugee Support and Relocation’
So just under $42 Billion of financial support. That’s on top of the transfer of military equipment, arms and munitions.
We need to replace it for our stocks, unless it is something surplus or retired. And if it’s really usable surplus, then it isn’t surplus. Government accounting isn’t the same as private sector accounting, but as far as this kind of thing, they should be valuing it at replacement cost, because that is the actual money being spent. Sending things over there we’ve already paid for isn’t really spending money, no?
“The $6.2 billion also allows the U.S. to meet its pledge of $40 billion to Ukraine”
I do not consent to my tax dollars being spent for the Biden Crime Family’s money launder scam.
” A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”? (attributed to Sen. Everett Dirksen)
Strange. I seem to remember that the US was just about to default on it’s debt and the hysteria by Brandon and the media over it. Turns out there are billions lying around and Ukraine is more important than our debt. I wonder why Brandon and the Dems are so hot and bothered about Ukraine?
This is probably much worse than 6.2 billion.
Suppose (made up numbers) a tank cost 8 million to build 10 years ago. It’s depreciated on the books so it now has book value of 2 million, but it’s mostly just sat in the depot and works fine. A new tank of that type could cost 10 million to make today.
So this is saying that rather than valuing those tanks at 10 million apiece, we must value them at 2 million apiece. And to spend a given amount of money allocated to Ukraine spending, we have to send 10/2=5 times as many tanks!
So if Congress allocates $1 billion and we have to send equipment that costs us 5 billion to replace.
Obviously the number 5 came out of my made up numbers, but I bet a lot of our equipment is almost fully depreciated (denominator close to zero!)
As a retired soldier, I’m as pro-national security (real national security, not politicians’ job security) as the next guy. The elephant in the room seems to be how much money is being obscured by so-called accounting errors, and where are the investigations into these allegedly sloppy practices?
I call for a 1.5% annual reduction in discretionary spending and an absolute freeze on so-called mandatory spending until we find out how much money has been squirreled away, hidden, or diverted by sloppy accounting, intentional or otherwise. This is fertile ground for fraud and abuse.
How many taxpayers have been sent to prison because of accounting errors of much lesser magnitude?
What they call “discretionary spending” is really only something like 15%. I’m all for cutting back, especially since finding out about the “shrimp treadmills” (do an internet search). The “mandatory” spending isn’t mandatory – it’s only mandatory if they want to get re-elected. But the path we are on is unsustainable and it’s getting worse.