The Daily Populous Friday July 26th, 2024 day edition
Authored by kyivindependent.com and submitted by TheRealMykola

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The U.S. Defense Department has identified another $2 billion worth of accounting errors in its estimations of military aid sent to Ukraine, a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed on July 25.

The Pentagon announced on June 21, 2023 that it had overestimated the value of arms sent to Ukraine over the past two years by $6.2 billion. Now, the discovery of additional errors brings the total unspent sum to $8.2 billion.

The Pentagon has struggled to accurately estimate the cost of defense articles shipped to Ukraine, the GAO report said.

U.S. Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) allows the president to allocate equipment from U.S. stocks, such as ammunition, vehicles, and medical supplies, to respond to crises abroad. PDA arises from the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

The Pentagon's "efforts to properly value defense articles for drawdown are hampered because the Foreign Assistance Act does not clearly define certain terms and DOD lacks PDA-specific valuation guidance," according to the GAO.

Due to the errors, the Defense Department can send a further $2 billion in weapons to Ukraine to cover the amount already approved by U.S. President Joe Biden.

The U.S. Defense Department announced on July 3 a new package of military aid for Ukraine worth $150 million. The assistance includes air defense interceptors, ammunition for high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), artillery rounds, and other critical capabilities drawn from U.S. stocks.

ThatEndingTho on July 26th, 2024 at 00:04 UTC »

Well you know what they say: the moment you take the Javelin missile out of the box it loses 25% of its value.

ForgetfulKiwi on July 25th, 2024 at 23:58 UTC »

Because no one reads the article.

TLDR

Pentagon sends equipment, munitions, vehicles etc. Is valuing equipment at original price point instead of what it might be worth now. Remember a lot of this stuff is decades old. The USA isn't sending its best. It's sending what is in the back of the closet.

> The Pentagon announced on June 21, 2023 that it had overestimated the value of arms sent to Ukraine over the past two years by $6.2 billion. Now, the discovery of additional errors brings the total unspent sum to $8.2 billion.

> The Pentagon has struggled to accurately estimate the cost of defense articles shipped to Ukraine, the GAO report said.

Drach88 on July 25th, 2024 at 23:58 UTC »

Alright, since no one is actually reading the article.....

THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM OF CORRUPTION OR MISSPENDING FUNDS. THIS DOESN'T AFFECT YOUR TAX DOLLARS.

This is not saying that $2 billion just went "poof", as if there's something nefarious going on.

This is basically saying that we sent a bunch of our old stuff over and valued that old stuff at about $8 billion, when actually the value of that stuff should've been appraised at closer to $6 billion.

How does this happen? Well, it's kinda like donating an old car. Let's say the car cost me $20k 15 years ago. The car certainly isn't valued at $20k today due to depreciation, wear-and-tear etc, so we do a back-of-the-envelope based on the condition and mileage, and we decide that the car is probably worth about $4k. Later, after donating the car, we find out that our calculations were wrong, and the car is probably worth closer to $2k, because we were not using the correct metrics to appraise it.

Nothing went missing. Nothing was misspent. There was just a discrepancy in how we estimated the value of something we already sent over.