A bipartisan quartet of U.S. senators wants Congress to create an inspector general (IG) with broad authority to conduct comprehensive oversight investigations of how U.S. military and civilian assistance to Ukraine has been administered and whether the aid has served the purpose for which it was given.
“Americans are supporting Ukraine’s brave work to beat back Russia by providing at least $113 billion in aid and military equipment,“ Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said in a Feb. 28 statement to announce the proposal. ”This is not an act of charity. It’s bolstering our own national security.”
U.S. aid to Ukraine has in the months since May 2022 spiraled to as much as $113 billion, providing extensive military weapon systems and ammunition, as well as measures designed to keep the Ukrainian government functioning, such as subsidizing Ukrainian pensions. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and, while the much smaller nation on Russia’s southwestern border has incurred great damage and thousands of casualties, the invasion has been mostly stymied.
“American taxpayers deserve to know that their money is helping Ukraine defeat Putin effectively, and Congress needs to guarantee that oversight,” Kennedy said. “This investment is too big to relegate to the normal bureaucratic channels. It demands an inspector general with a singular focus on America’s return on investment in Ukraine.”
“The United States continues to stand with the people of Ukraine, and by establishing a Special Inspector General for Ukrainian Assistance, we ensure accountability for Americans and Ukrainians as they defend their homes and freedoms from Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war,” Sinema wrote in the statement with Kennedy.
“The United States taxpayer should be confident in knowing Ukraine is using our aid for one thing: defeating Russia. Establishing a Special IG will hold Ukraine accountable to use the aid we give them in the most efficient and effective manner,” Cramer wrote.
“The American people need and deserve assurances that their taxpayer dollars are being used responsibly in the defense of Ukraine and our allies. A special inspector general would work to account for the billions we are expending in the fight against Russia’s blatantly evil aggression against Ukraine and global security,” Hyde-Smith wrote.
The Ukraine aid IG proposal is patterned after the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) created by Congress and President George W. Bush in 2008. John Sopko, a veteran congressional investigator and counsel, was appointed to the post by President Barack Obama in 2012. Sopko had served on the staffs of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Select Committee on Homeland Security, and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations when he became SIGAR.As SIGAR, Sopko issued a multitude of investigative and audit reports that document billions of dollars lost to waste, fraud, and abuse in both U.S. operations and the former government and military of Afghanistan. When President Joe Biden ordered the United States to evacuate Afghanistan in 2021, more than $80 billion in military equipment, including firearms, ammunition, uniforms, night-vision goggles, winged aircraft and helicopters, and heavy munitions remained behind.
The bill now before Congress provides $20 million from the money that Congress has already provided in Ukraine aid to fund the new Ukraine watchdog. The $20 million represents less than 0.02 percent of the $113 billion in supplemental aid that has been set aside for Ukraine since January 2022.
The U.S. total of $113 billion in aid to Ukraine represents 76 percent of the $146.8 billion in U.S. relief and reconstruction aid to Afghanistan, beginning in 2002.
In SIGAR’s most recent report, the Afghanistan aid watchdog offered six reasons for the sudden collapse of the U.S.-backed government, including a “high level of centralization, endemic corruption, and struggle to attain legitimacy,” which were described as “long-term contributors to its eventual collapse.”
The report continued: “The Bonn Conference, convened in late 2001, established a process for the construction of a new political order in Afghanistan that involved the adoption of a new constitution and democratic elections. Forged between various factions of the Afghan polity, the agreement that emerged from Bonn centralized power in the Afghan presidency.
“By investing so much power in the executive, Afghanistan’s political system raised the stakes for political competition and reignited long-running tensions between an urban elite eager to modernize and conservative rural populations distrustful of central governance.”
