The Pentagon, in order to jack up the quantities of munitions, weapons and other military assistance it is shipping to Ukraine out of its own stocks, keeps “miscalculating” the monetary values of what it ships. Reuters reported yesterday that the Pentagon has discovered more accounting “errors” which cumulatively add up to another $2 billion or so that it can transfer to Ukraine as weapons, munitions and other military assistance. The DOD in a report to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), said that in 2023,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.
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. What they don’t say is that if the DOD wants to replace these 10 vehicles, they have to pay manufacturers’ purchase price, not the book value of zero. That cost, if incurred, will be covered by the U.S. taxpayer through an act of Congress.
