On January 30, Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko met with Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defence Robert Storch, Inspector General of USAID Paul Martin, Acting Inspector General of the U.S. Department of State Diana Shaw and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Ukraine Bridget Brink.
The meeting was also attended by First Deputy Minister of Finance Denys Uliutin, Deputy Minister of Finance Roman Yermolychev and Deputy Minister of Finance Olexandr Kava.
The Minister of Finance of Ukraine noted that the Ministry of Finance was actively cooperating with the World Bank and USAID to ensure the monitoring of the targeted use of every dollar of financial assistance provided by the US Government.
“Since 2022, the Government of Ukraine, the World Bank and USAID have been implementing a multi-level system of monitoring and auditing the direct budgetary support of the United States, which has reached $23 billion since the beginning of the full-scale war. The assistance was directed to public sector salaries, including doctors, teachers, civil servants, except for the security forces, emergency workers, and state social assistance. The Ministry of Finance is committed to accountability and efficient use of financial aid from our partners”, Sergii Marchenko said.
In this context, parties discussed the measures taken by the Government of Ukraine, together with international partners, to ensure transparency in the use of US assistance.
Together with Deloitte Consulting, which implements the USAID SOERA project, the Ministry of Finance monitors the use of direct budget support from the U.S. Government, and with the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Ukraine, conducts an audit according to agreed procedures to determine the allowable public expenditures made by Ukraine under the PEACE in Ukraine project.
In cooperation with the World Bank, all disbursements are made on the basis of monthly reports, separately for each category of employees and recipients of social state aid. The use of this mechanism facilitates the rapid disbursement of funds to the Ukrainian Government while ensuring transparency. Before disbursing funds to the Government of Ukraine, the World Bank also conducts an expenditure review to ensure that funds are used only for their intended purpose – to provide essential services to the population of Ukraine.
The parties agreed to continue working closely together to monitor the responsible use of funds provided by the United States Government. (Government portal/Business World Magazine)
