Oversight mechanisms for American aid to Ukraine are effectively preventing fraud and diversion, according to Congressional testimony from those involved.
Nicole Angarella, the acting deputy inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said there is no evidence that direct assistance to embattled Kyiv has been fraudulently or otherwise diverted from its intended purposes.
“I want to be clear that providing timely, impactful, and independent oversight of USAID’s Ukraine response is my office’s top priority,” Angarella said.
“From our substantiated work that we’ve done thus far, we have not identified any instances of fraud or misuse with respect to the direct budget support.”
Angarella added that her office’s “substantive oversight mechanism” had not resulted in any serious criminal findings regarding the use of U.S. aid to Ukraine, but had solicited huge increases in the number of suspected frauds reported.
That likely means people are becoming increasingly aware of the appropriate channels through which to report suspicious activity, Angarella said.
Likewise, Defense Department Inspector General Robert Storch said the Pentagon was working to ensure accountability for all security aid from its point of origin in the United States through arrival on the front lines in Ukraine.
“It’s my understanding that of the $113 billion that the Congress has appropriated to date for Ukrainian assistance, over $62 billion … has gone to security assistance,” Storch said.
Most American Aid Goes to US Workers
Ensuring accountability in the U.S. aid to Ukraine has been a top priority of lawmakers since Russia launched its attempted conquest more than a year ago.To that end, Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said that it was “imperative” that U.S. taxpayers understand how robust oversight mechanisms were ensuring the nation’s aid was “used as intended.”
“Accountability will be paramount to continued assistance to Ukraine,” McCaul said.
For that purpose, McCaul also made clear that the majority of U.S. aid for Ukraine actually goes directly to the American servicemembers and workers responsible for creating and delivering the required materials.
Sixty percent of aid, McCaul said, went “to American troops, American workers, and modernizing American stockpiles.”
Vital to Stopping Russia
Continuing effective oversight of U.S. aid to Ukraine is vital to stopping the Russian war machine before it reaches NATO territory, McCaul said.Further, McCaul tied the nation’s support to a larger struggle between the rules-based international order and a resurgent autocracy witnessed throughout the world.
“It’s been a year since Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine,” McCaul said.
“I supported U.S. assistance because a victory by Putin in Ukraine would further embolden America’s adversaries from Xi in Beijing to the Ayatollah in Tehran, to Kim Jong-un in North Korea.”
Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) similarly said that American aid to Ukraine was part of a wider struggle to defend free societies from resurgent authoritarianism, and was in the national interest of the United States.
“Congress and the American people will continue to stand with the brave Ukrainians who are defending their rights and freedom,” Meeks said.
“It is in our national interest to provide … support to Ukraine so that it may win this war, which it will.”
