The watchdog for US spending on Afghanistan told Responsible Statecraft in an interview that he expects “pilferage” of US aid to Ukraine.
John Sopko, who has served as the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) since 2012, said that he personally favored creating a similar position for US spending on the war in Ukraine.
Explaining why more oversight on the Ukraine policy is needed, Sopko pointed to the fact that the US has already authorized $113 billion in spending. “That money is flowing like manna from the sky. If you don’t get in there soon, you’re gonna see pilferage,” he said.
Sopko said he was not just concerned about military assistance to Ukraine but also aid disbursed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). “We’ve always had more problems with AID. In Afghanistan, my experience with them is they have not been a very well-run organization,” he said.
Sopko pointed to the fact that USAID was overseeing aid that’s paying the salaries of Ukrainian government workers. In Afghanistan, Sopko said the Pentagon directed the paying of government salaries and could never come up with a system to make sure the US was paying the salaries of real Afghans.
“Well, have you heard anybody saying, ‘what’s the system they have in place to ensure that they’re not paying ghost Ukrainian civil servants, ghost Ukrainian police, ghost Ukrainian soldiers?'” he said.
Sopko said USAID has “had a poor track record on ghosts and on oversight” and added that the State Department is “even worse.” The US has provided Ukraine with tens of billions in “budgetary aid,” funds that go directly to the Ukrainian government.
Sopko said he was worried about after the war when the US and its allies fund Ukraine’s reconstruction. “The real crisis is going to happen once the shooting stops, and they start laying concrete, and they start rebuilding things … We’re going to be buying horribly overpriced steel and cement and other products,” he said.
US government agencies have assigned their own inspector generals to oversee Ukraine aid but have resisted efforts to establish a position similar to Sopko’s. He said a “whole of government” approach was necessary for the oversight. The Senate recently voted down an amendment introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) that would have created a special inspector general for Ukraine.
Earlier this month, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a report that alleged the CIA is aware of rampant corruption in Ukraine and estimated that Ukrainian officials have skimmed at least $400 million in US-provided funds earmarked for diesel purchases.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Ukraine’s notorious corruption was commonly cited by Western governments. In June 2021, President Biden said Kyiv must “clean up corruption” before it can join NATO. But since the US began flooding Ukraine with weapons and money, the corruption concerns have barely been mentioned.
It would be much cheaper to make Ukraine a US state.
Because war is a racket?
Sort of.
Yes. But in the larger sense venality and thievery are impossibly venial. The great Smedley confessed to a trivial, in order to avoid the unforgivable hekatombs he presided at.
Trust me you have enough corruption at home without adding Ukraine.
My mother always said that “America should have given Minnesota to the Jews” (in regards to the Israel situation)
I’d like for EVERYONE to have a HOMELAND and that goes for Palestine.
Why are WE paying for a war in EUROPE?
Don’t they still want to kill each other?
Money laundering, of course. That’s why the US claimed for 20 years that it was “winning” the war.
Congress knows they can’t send auditors because the stealing is so rife that even the auditors won’t be able to spin the stealing into something reasonable within their reports.
Here is news from Finland:
Weapons sent to Ukraine may have found their way back to Finland and have ended up in the hands of the criminal underground, including motorcycle gangs, according to the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Routes from Ukraine to Finland to smuggle arms have been established, Detective Superintendent Christer Ahlgren of NBI said during a YLE interview on Sunday. However, Ahlgren did not disclose what kind of weapons might now be in the wrong hands. https://www.euractiv.com/section/all/short_news/weapons-sent-to-ukraine-may-have-ended-up-in-finnish-underground/
There are other reports that the African weapons black market is full of arms that originated in Ukraine.
“Sopko said he was not just concerned about military assistance to
Ukraine but also aid disbursed by the US Agency for International
Development (USAID)”.
there needs to be an investigation into the graft and corruption of Ukraine paying off our politicians and of course Joey and Hunter Biden!
Bye-dones.
“Pilferage”?
Isn’t that a nice euphemism for “ripping off”?
Stealing?
Yup!
i made up a word a long time ago = skode.
it is both a noun and a verb.
“who skoded my potato chips!”
“oh man you are a skode for skoding my potato chips”
etc.
lol, lol……
I’m shocked, that the most corrupt regime in the world would steal rule based democracy aid…..did we not all not expect this in 2014 when Obama overthrew the legitimate government and placed Nazi’s in power?
Hypocrisy, thy name is Uncle Sam. I haven’t entirely given up hope, but I’m this close. I see no reason to keep looking for honesty anywhere in this administration when it comes to projecting power across the globe.
Hypocrisy is rampant throughout every dark corner of US policy. We are drunk on power. We have abandoned decency in service to something completely amoral.
I completely concur OB1.
just wait until the republicans are in charge. because
“ain’t seen nothin’ yet – b b b baby, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”
Oh come on!! This war is just about war industry profits and campaign funds and always has been. Simple if you follow the money and ask who benefits. The corruption just helps more and more tax funds to be wasted at the taxpayers expense as the war industry and Wash. politicians profit.