House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Oversight Committee Republicans have called for transparency regarding the $113 billion in taxpayer-funded assistance to Ukraine.
The committee sent a letter to the Department of Defense, Department of State, and Agency for International Development on Feb. 22, asking them to provide documents and information to ensure the funds are not wasted or abused.
“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is conducting oversight of the federal government’s administration of U.S. taxpayer-funded assistance to Ukraine,” the lawmakers said. “Since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly a year ago, Congress has provided more than $113 billion for security, humanitarian, economic, and governance assistance.”
The committee members specifically cited concerns stemming from the U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby from Jan. 25.
“We have not seen any signs that our budgetary assistance has fallen prey to any kind of corruption in Ukraine” but that all direct budgetary assistance “goes through the World Bank,” he said.
However, Kirby’s comments came the day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly fired several top Ukrainian officials amidst a corruption scandal.
“We learned from efforts in Afghanistan that the World Bank does not always have effective monitoring and accounting of funds, and often lacks transparency,” the committee Republicans said.
The Republicans asserted that unrealistic timetables and expectations that prioritize fast expenditure lead to greater corruption and decreased program performance.
“As the United States continues to filter assistance through multilateral organizations with pressure to spend funds quickly, we must ensure proper protections are in place to prevent the misuse of funds,” the lawmakers said.
The committee asked for documents and information from the agencies that would help them understand how he Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development have conducted their oversight of the funds sent to Ukraine.
“It is critical that government agencies administering these funds ensure they are used for their intended purposes to prevent and reduce the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse,” wrote the Republicans.
The Republican-led Oversight Committee said in its press release that it is returning to its original mission of rooting out potential mismanagement in the federal government.
The group has already heard from several federal witnesses during a recent hearing on emergency pandemic expenditure, which led them to believe that hurried timetables can leave programs open to misuse.
The Deparment of Defense did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment.
