Washington (CNN) The US military is seeking a $331 million reimbursement from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after discovering it failed to properly charge the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen for aerial refueling services due to an "accounting error," the Pentagon said Thursday.
While the US decided last month that it would no longer refuel Saudi aircraft conducting strike missions over Yemen, the Pentagon still expects to be compensated for the outstanding costs accrued between March 2015 and November of this year.
Specifically, the US is working to recoup approximately $36.8 million for fuel and $294.3 million for flight hours, according to Pentagon spokesperson Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, who noted that partners have been individually notified about how much they owe.
"US Central Command reviewed its records and found errors in accounting where we failed to charge the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) adequately for fuel and refueling services. USCENTCOM calculated the correct charges, and Department of Defense is in the process of seeking reimbursement," she said in a statement to CNN.
It was a mistake that was first reported last week by The Atlantic and uncovered during a probe by Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who said Thursday he is encouraged that the Pentagon is now taking steps to recover the funds for US taxpayers.
tugeagon on December 17th, 2018 at 03:08 UTC »
So fitting that its about a dollar from every person in America.
randommnguy on December 17th, 2018 at 01:05 UTC »
Did the Saudis have automatic payments setup? That always happens to me.
melechshelyat on December 16th, 2018 at 23:32 UTC »
That's a helluva lot to "forget" to charge the Saudis and the UAE. $331 million may not seem like much to the military, which has a $700 billion budget, but that's enough money to pay a thousand+ employees in US government agencies.