Pelican State News

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) has written to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John F. Sopko, to request insight from Afghanistan reconstruction efforts that may be applicable to U.S. assistance efforts in Ukraine. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) joined the letter to the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

“In addition to its hundreds of audits and investigations, SIGAR has issued several informative lessons learned reports on topics such as security assistance, economic development, monitoring and evaluation of aid programs, and anti-corruption efforts, among many others,” began the senators.

“Accordingly, we desire to learn more about how those lessons from Afghanistan could be applicable to the current situation in Ukraine, as the U.S. Congress has already appropriated more than $113 billion for Ukraine assistance since last March,” they explained.

“It is our firm belief that robust oversight of current and future U.S. assistance efforts in Ukraine is imperative for their success. A critical part of that oversight is ensuring the U.S. acts on key lessons from previous conflicts, including Afghanistan. Doing so will help us avoid repeating costly mistakes and protect the massive investment in Ukraine by American taxpayers from waste, fraud, abuse, and failure,” concluded the lawmakers.

Kennedy and Sinema have introduced the Independent and Objective Oversight of Ukrainian Assistance Act to establish a Special Inspector General (IG) for Ukraine. The Special IG would oversee the humanitarian, economic and security assistance funding that the U.S. Congress has provided to the country and make sure that the funds are appropriately spent.

Their op-ed on this effort appeared in USA Today this week.

The senators’ letter to SIGAR is available here.

Original source can be found here