on November 15, 2024, 2:37 pm
For a fourth time the Pentagon is 'finding money' outside of the budget that can be spend on Ukraine.
I had previously noticed three occasions in which the Pentagon, on order of the Biden administration, used some or 'accounting error' gimmicks to 'find' more money for Ukraine.
Pentagon Again Applies Budget Lies To Deliver More Weapons To Ukraine - Jul 26 2024, MoA
The piece referred to three relevant news reports:
Exclusive: Pentagon accounting error overvalued Ukraine weapons aid by $3 billion - May 19 2023, Reuters
Pentagon accounting error provides extra $6.2 billion for Ukraine military aid - June 20 2023, AP
Pentagon finds another $2 billion of accounting errors for Ukraine aid - July 14 2024, Reuters
From the last link:
The Pentagon has found $2 billion worth of additional errors in its calculations for ammunition, missiles and other equipment sent to Ukraine, increasing the improperly valued material to a total of $8.2 billion, a U.S. government report revealed on Thursday.
Here is now another, the fourth, incident of creative budget accounting in favor of money for war in Ukraine:
All reports previously indicated that there was $4.3 billion left in the Presidential Drawdown Authority account, which reimburses the U.S. armed forces for munitions and equipment sent to Ukraine.
Turns out, the number is actually $7.1 billion, thanks to some revised accounting the Pentagon has done, DOD officials tell your anchor. That extra $2.8 billion isn’t just found money. The way things work is that the Pentagon calculates how much buying replacement goods for what it sends Ukraine will cost. The number crunchers at the Pentagon ran through the lists and discovered that replacement for some items cost less than anticipated.
The plan is for the administration to spend down that whole $7.1 billion by Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 ...
Luckily, not all of the money will reach Ukraine:
[Spending the money] is a pretty tall order given the cadence of aid packages being announced roughly every two weeks work between $200 million and $500 million. Those numbers are going to have to go way up, but even then deliveries of that equipment would continue well into the Trump administration, which could turn off the spigot at any time.
I bet that the lower 'replacements costs' the Pentagon has found to spend more on Ukraine, will themselves turn out to be 'accounting errors'. The replacements will - unfortunately they will say - later require much higher outlays than anticipated today.
Creative accounting like this, i.e. faking the books, is a no-no for commercial entity as it might well end with time spent in jail.
I'll repeat myself:
Any commercial company doing what the Pentagon is doing here would be asking for serious trouble.
One wonder if and when Congress will wake up to this.
Posted by b on November 15, 2024 at 6:56 UTC
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