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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (L) and U.S. President Joe Biden hold a joint press conference on the sidelines of the G7 Summit hosted by Italy in Apulia region, in Savelletri, in June. On Thursday, the Government Accountability Office said it found an additional $2 billion that can go to Ukraine’s defense. File Photo by US Embassy in Italy/UPI | License Photo
July 26 (UPI) — Miscalculations in the value of weaponry the United States has sent to Ukraine has again been uncovered, increasing the Pentagon’s purse to supply its besieged ally by another $2 billion.
At more than $53 billion in military assistance, the United States is by far Ukraine’s largest backer in its two-year war against Russia.
Last year, the Pentagon notified Congress that it had overvalued some of the defense articles it sent to Ukraine by about $6.2 billion. Because of this miscalculation, the Government Accountability Office was directed by Congress through the passing of the omnibus Consolidated Appropriation Act spending bill late last year to audit funds appropriate to support Ukraine.
The GAO report was published Thursday identifying “additional reductions in values” totally nearly $2 billion.
It said the majority of the miscalculations concerned what are called OM&S, which are items that are used in normal operations, such as spare parts, ammunition and missiles.
The miscalculations are in connection to presidential drawdowns, meaning items taken from Pentagon stockpiles.
The report states the Department of Defense valued some of the items not based on their value at the time they were taken from U.S. stockpiles but from the cost to replace them.
The GAO said in explanation that several of the items given to Ukraine were past their normal operating life, meaning they had a value of zero dollars but they were recorded at a cost greater than that.
For example, the United States provided Ukraine with 10 vehicles it valued at $7 million. However, the book value of each vehicle was zero, meaning that there was $7 million for an additional drawdown authority.
To prevent further miscalculations, the GAO is recommending that Congress clarify the definition of “value” concerning the president’s drawdown authority and the Pentagon to create drawdown authority-specific guidance.
As of March, President Joe Biden authorized an unprecedented 45 drawdowns at a value of nearly $24 billion. Between September 1961 when the drawdown authority was established and July of 2021, there were 94 uses of the authority, totally nearly $3 billion, or $8.5 billion when adjusted for inflation.
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