System audit: why the US Congress requires a federal report on spending on Kyiv

A group of 23 Republicans led by the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, James Comer, called on the federal government departments that provided Ukraine with more than $113 billion in aid from American taxpayers to provide documents that would allow verification of the intended use of these funds.

This is stated in the letter of legislators, published on the Congress website.

“It is extremely important that the government departments responsible for managing these funds ensure that they are used for their intended purpose in order to prevent and reduce the risk of waste, fraud and abuse.

The Committee is requesting documents and information in order to understand how the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the Agency for International Development (USAID. -

) exercise control over these funds, ”the document says.

In their letter, the legislators emphasize that the provision of assistance to Kyiv, including in the field of security, "invariably involves the risk of fraud, waste and abuse."

In their opinion, the US should identify these risks and develop oversight mechanisms to mitigate them.

"As the United States continues to channel aid through multilateral organizations in an environment where funds are required to be spent quickly, we must ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent funds from being misused," Republican congressmen said.

Arguing their request, the legislators recalled that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired several high-ranking officials amid a corruption scandal in the republic.

“Ukrainian government officials, allegedly engaged in bribery, used government vehicles for personal purposes and purchased food for the Armed Forces of Ukraine at inflated prices,” members of the US Congress state.

Legislators are interested in all information about the allocation of funds to help Kyiv, starting from February 24, 2022.

At the same time, the heads of the Pentagon, the State Department and USAID must provide the requested reporting information by March 8. 

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In turn, a member of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, Marjorie Taylor Green, on February 22, in her Telegram channel, filed an accusation against US President Joe Biden.

According to her, he only cares about "increasing the war in Ukraine even more and pouring even more money into it."

“President Trump meets with the residents of East Palestine (Ohio) (where dozens of wagons containing chemicals derailed.

) and brings them water and food, while Joe Biden, meanwhile ... licks Zelensky’s ass and, against our will, draws us all into a world war, ”Green emphasized.

New wave of criticism

Recall that calls from Republicans to begin an audit of aid allocated by the United States to the Kyiv regime have become more frequent after Western media reports about a corruption scandal in Ukraine and personnel reshuffles in connection with this in the government of the country.

So, on January 24, in her Twitter, Taylor Green called Ukraine one of the most corrupt countries in the world and drew attention to the importance of an audit of aid allocated to Kyiv.

She wondered how much of the dollars earned by Americans are being stolen or given to people they "shouldn't go to"?

A similar statement was made on the same social network on the same day by a member of the US Congress from the Republican Party, Lauren Bobert, who called on the US authorities to urgently audit all funds allocated to Ukraine.

Thus, she commented on the material posted on the NBC website about the resignations of Ukrainian officials involved in corruption.

A few days after these statements, US Ambassador to Kiev Bridget Brink announced that inspectors had arrived in Ukraine to audit American aid to the Kyiv regime.

According to her, we are talking about representatives of the offices of inspectors general of the Pentagon, the State Department and USAID, who want to "improve independent monitoring" of the United States aid to the Kyiv regime.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that after a trip to Kiev in January, representatives of these oversight bodies that monitor military and economic aid to Ukraine said they would insist on sending some of their 177 auditors and investigators to the war zone, to make control more efficient.

The fact is that the supervision of the use of American military assistance is still carried out remotely - from the United States, Poland and Germany, WSJ journalists remind.

Control for visibility

However, Yuri Rogulev, director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States at Moscow State University, doubts that Washington will be able to effectively control the use of American weapons in Ukraine, as well as financial resources coming from the United States.

“When weapons and other support fall into the hands of the Ukrainian authorities, it is not possible to control all this.

Even if you rely on the official data of the Ukrainian government, this will not work, because when help reaches the regimental commanders, they can safely sell it right and left on the black market.

Washington is talking about arms control in Ukraine for the sake of appearances in order to reassure the population, especially the Republicans, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

The idea of ​​the representatives of the Republican Party themselves, according to Rogulev, is to control the costs that go to military assistance to the Kyiv regime in the United States at this stage.

“At first glance, the task seems feasible.

However, the Pentagon is known for corruption scandals and belongs to the executive branch, which means it will decide for itself what data to provide and what not, coordinating its actions with the State Department and USAID.

Therefore, lawmakers will always run into problems when trying to analyze the spending of these departments related to Ukraine,” the analyst said.

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• © Bill Clark

Rogulev also condemned the actions of Biden, who flew to Kyiv instead of organizing assistance to his own population in the elimination of man-made disasters.

“Many in the US were surprised by this.

A train with toxic substances has derailed in the country, and the head of the White House behaves as if nothing had happened and is calmly going to Kyiv.

Here the Americans have a question about what Biden cares more about: the situation in Ukraine, which is not even formally an ally of the United States, or the situation in their own country?

The answer is obvious.

Against this background, more and more US residents will advocate a decrease in support for Kyiv, ”the expert emphasized.

Vladimir Batyuk, head of the Center for Military-Political Studies of the Institute for the US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, took a similar position.

According to him, it is completely incomprehensible to millions of Americans why Kyiv's interests for the US administration are higher than the needs of its own population.

“It is not clear to them why gigantic funds are being spent to support the corrupt regime in Ukraine, while no one pays attention to the most pressing needs of the Americans themselves,” Batyuk said in a comment to RT.

Experts agree that this kind of sentiment will prevail in the United States if the Republicans still manage to uncover any "unfair spending" by Washington related to the allocation of assistance to Kiev.

“In this case, Biden himself, who has already decided to enter the election race, will not be happy: his rating is already quite low, and new details may further worsen the chances of the current head of the White House for re-election,” said Rogulev.

In turn, Batyuk noted that the revelation of new facts of Ukrainian corruption related to the assistance received from the United States could also reduce Washington's support.

“Republicans have a majority in the lower house.

It is the US Congress that decides what to allocate funds for and what not.

And that's a real problem for the current Biden administration, as it will need to find some sort of compromise with the Republicans.

And during these butts, the consequences for Kyiv can be quite serious in the form of a significant reduction in the cost of military assistance to Ukraine.

Western media are already reporting this and are seriously thinking about it in Kyiv, ”concluded the expert.