Inspector General Robert P. Storch announced today that the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General released the report, “Evaluation of the DoD’s Enhanced End-Use Monitoring of Defense Articles Provided to Ukraine.” The report found that, while the DoD has improved its execution of enhanced end-use monitoring (EEUM) since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it did not fully comply during the period covered by our review with the requirements for EEUM-designated defense articles in a hostile environment. Specifically, the DoD OIG determined that, as of June 2, 2023, serial number inventories for more than $1.005 billion (59 percent) of the total $1.699 billion of EEUM-designated defense articles were delinquent. Multiple factors contributed to the reporting gaps, including the limited number of U.S. personnel at logistics hubs in a partner nation and in Ukraine, the absence of procedures for conducting EEUM in a hostile environment until December 2022, the movement restrictions for EEUM personnel within Ukraine, and a lack of internal controls for validating data in the SCIP-EUM database.
The evaluation released today is part of an ongoing series of reviews by the DoD OIG assessing the extent to which the DoD is monitoring and accounting for EEUM-designated defense articles, which are identified as items that contain sensitive technology, are particularly susceptible to diversion or misuse, or whose diversion or misuse could have significant consequences.
IG Storch said, "While there has been significant improvement in the delinquency rate for inventorying this sensitive equipment, persistent gaps as identified in our evaluation may correlate with an inability to maintain complete accountability for this critical U.S. security assistance.” IG Storch added that, “as our evaluation was focused on the DoD’s compliance with its EEUM requirements, it was beyond the scope of this project to determine whether there has been diversion of that assistance. The DoD OIG now has personnel stationed in country, and our Defense Criminal Investigative Service continues to investigate allegations of criminal conduct with regard to U.S. security assistance.”
“However,” IG Storch continued, “we believe that implementation of the recommendations contained in the report issued today will enhance the policies, procedures, and coordination mechanisms of the DoD and improve its effectiveness in maintaining accountability for this sensitive assistance."
The evaluation made five recommendations for corrective action. These include improving the inventory procedures for EEUM-designated defense articles; coordinating with the Department of State to improve visibility of third-party transfers of EEUM-designated defense articles prior to transfer; establishing and implementing procedures sufficient to meet the requirement for serialized delivery records in advance of transferring EEUM articles to a hostile environment; and developing internal controls and updating the DSCA’s Security Assistance Management Manual to improve the accuracy and timeliness of the inventory entries within the designated database. The DoD has taken steps to implement some of these recommendations, and the DoD OIG will conduct oversight to help ensure that the DoD implements all actions recommended in the report.
During the course of conducting this evaluation in 2023, the DoD OIG issued two Management Advisories: DoD Review and Update of Defense Articles Requiring Enhanced End-Use Monitoring and Sufficiency of Staffing at Logistics Hubs in Poland for Conducting Inventories of Items Requiring Enhanced End-Use Monitoring as part of its effort to do agile reporting on issues identified during the course of our work. The DoD OIG also previously released two reports on EEUM in Ukraine, the first in August 2020 and a classified report in October 2022. The DoD OIG currently has ongoing and planned work on EEUM, and we will continue to report on our oversight as it is completed in this important area.