The Department of Defense overestimated the value of U.S. military equipment it handed over to Ukraine in support of the latter’s defense efforts against Russian invasion by about $6.2 billion, Axios reported Wednesday.
According to the report, the misvaluation could enable DOD to deliver more military assistance to Ukraine.
Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary at the Pentagon, said DOD uncovered inconsistencies in the valuation of equipment during the department’s oversight of the presidential drawdown authority for the European country, overestimating the equipment by $2.6 billion in fiscal year 2022 and $3.6 billion in FY 2023.
“In a significant number of cases, services used replacement costs rather than net book value, thereby overestimating the value of the equipment drawn down from U.S. stocks and provided to Ukraine,” Singh said Tuesday during a press briefing.
On March 31, she noted that the DOD’s comptroller moved to address the accounting error by reissuing guidance to clarify how to value equipment.
“These valuation errors in no way limit or restricted the size of any of our PDAs or impacted the provision of support to Ukraine, and while the DOD — while the DOD retains the authority to utilize the recaptured PDA, this has no bearing on appropriated USAI or Ukraine PDA replenishment funding approved by Congress,” Singh added.
