This week, the U.S. has its auditors working in Ukraine alongside the World Bank and Deloitte consultants to make sure that “no aid or weapons are diverted,” U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said on Jan. 26.
Nuland also said that the U.S. continues “to support essential reform and anti-corruption measures by the Ukrainian government across the country.”
Her statement comes days after yet another corruption scandal broke out in Ukraine.
On Jan. 23, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said that it had begun investigating possible corruption in the Defense Ministry’s food procurement.
The statement followed an investigation by Ukrainian news outlet ZN.UA, which alleged that the Defense Ministry was buying food for soldiers at inflated prices, indicating a possible corruption scheme.
Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that inflated prices were a “technical error” of the contractor, who “made a mistake while transferring data from one table to another.”
Reznikov dismissed the investigative report as “nothing but manipulations” and promised repercussions to those who leaked the contract to journalists, adding that the Security Service of Ukraine would look for the alleged whistleblower.
Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov resigned on Jan. 24 following the procurement scandal that rocked Ukraine.
However, the recent corruption scandals do not appear to have involved the humanitarian aid supplied to Ukraine by the United States, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Jan. 24.
Amid several corruption scandals, President Volodymyr Zelensky on Jan. 24 launched the biggest government reshuffle since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Some saw the reshuffle as an effort by Zelensky to clean house but critics argued that the reshuffle is a result of political infighting, not a genuine anti-corruption drive, since some notorious top officials accused of corruption are notably missing from the list of those fired.
These include Zelensky's notorious Deputy Chief of Staff Oleh Tatarov, who was charged with bribery in 2020.
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