Eleven months after Congress approved the first raft of aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia, the federal government is struggling to keep tabs on how its money is being spent.
Taxpayer dollars have flowed at an impressive clip to Ukraine since Russia invaded last year. Congress has sent $113 billion to the country to date, of which $62 billion has gone to the Pentagon to provide military support for the fight itself, according to the Congressional Research Service.
FUTURE OF UKRAINE FUNDING ON SHAKY GROUND ONE YEAR INTO CONFLICT
The rest of the money has gone to humanitarian assistance and financial support for the Ukrainian government; those U.S. contributions have dwarfed what any other country has provided Ukraine.
Much of the aid has proved difficult to track — in part because, due to the security risks, fewer American officials remain in Ukraine to keep tabs on the expenditures.
“No. 1 is eyes on,” Max Primorac, director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, told the Washington Examiner. “We just don’t have the staff in Kyiv being able to go out and spot check.”
“That means that we have to staff up the embassy. I know there’s security issues, but we’ve worked in places with security issues,” he said, citing his own experience in Afghanistan. “They need to dramatically increase the number of staff to be able to go out there and spot-check where stuff is going.”
Otherwise, Primorac said, U.S. agencies and the international organizations with which they’ve partnered may have to rely on the word of the Ukrainian government or little-known local groups to follow the money.
The nonmilitary aid to Ukraine has funded some things only indirectly related to the fight against Russia.
For example, the United States has put $220 million toward “media freedom,” the White House said on Tuesday, which includes efforts to keep Ukrainian-run news outlets operational during the violence.
Another $100 million went toward boosting Ukrainian farmers. A $15 million chunk has gone to helping small businesses get loans through a Ukrainian bank.
The precise destinations of much of the funding, military or nonsecurity alike, can be unclear.
The Pentagon’s watchdog has warned repeatedly that the Defense Department’s convoluted data systems “could limit the transparency” of how military aid to Ukraine is being spent.
In a September report, the Pentagon inspector general found that the system used for collecting data on some Ukrainian funds “requires financial actions that could potentially mislead DoD stakeholders.”
“Our concern is that the DoD’s process reflects disbursements when no payment for goods or services has occurred, which impacts the accuracy” of reporting on the funds, the inspector general wrote.
Other types of aid to Ukraine could be even more difficult to track.
Financial assistance meant to help Ukraine with its budget deficit has been routed through the World Bank, which then provides the money to the Ukrainian government for use in a host of programs, including healthcare and housing. The U.S. Agency for International Development has said it uses “USAID-funded, expert third-party monitoring support embedded within the Ukrainian government” to oversee the financial aid to Ukraine.
Primorac said that arrangement won’t necessarily allow American officials to track the funding.
“That doesn’t automatically give you eyes on,” he said. “You get to see what the [Ukrainian] government lets you see.”
The Ukrainian government’s notorious corruption has led some experts and U.S. lawmakers to question how the funding is being spent.
The problem persists during wartime, with the deputy minister of defense, for example, resigning last month after allegedly buying food for the Ukrainian army at prices well above market value.
USAID’s internal watchdog has said that some aid programs in Ukraine are vulnerable to abuse, some of which may already be underway.
“Criminals are likely to seek opportunities to defraud Ukraine-related programs for personal gain,” USAID’s inspector general warned in July 2022.
The USAID watchdog said that as of July, its office had already “received 12 fraud and misconduct allegations related to the Ukraine response.”
The speed at which American money has blanketed Ukraine also raises concerns.
The U.S. spent as much as $900 billion over the two decades it fought and rebuilt in Afghanistan; that means the U.S. sent on average far less to Afghanistan annually than it has to Ukraine over the past year.
The breakneck pace of spending in Ukraine means what little oversight capacity the U.S. has there can easily become overwhelmed.
In Afghanistan, billions of dollars disappeared during the war and reconstruction period to waste, fraud, and abuse.
In determining whether Congress should send more money to Ukraine, Republicans want to know the same thing won’t happen again.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee demanded answers about the funding this week from the Biden administration, asking the heads of the Pentagon, State Department, and USAID to provide emails and records related to their spending in Ukraine.
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Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) gave the Biden administration until March 8 to provide the documents.
Comer’s letter came after a growing chorus of Republicans had pushed for more oversight of the money flowing into Ukraine. Even some Republicans who favor continuing the U.S. support for Ukraine have criticized the lack of information about where the generous investment has gone.