The Washington Post is claiming that the Pentagon has create a huge slush fund by overcharging the different services for the fuel they purchase. The report claims that $6 billion has been overcharged in the last seven years and these ‘funds’ are being used for a variety of things including to fund Syrian rebels and unanticipated costs associated with the war in Afghanistan.
Critics accuse Pentagon officials of gaining the extra money by billing the military branches for fuel at much higher rates than what commercial airlines paid for jet fuel on the open market.
Pentagon officials deny that the fuel accounts are being used as a slush fund, arguing that lawmakers have approved requests to use money from such accounts to balance agency budgets.
The Defense Department — the largest single buyer of fuel in the world — each year purchases about 100 million barrels of refined petroleum from the Defense Logistics Agency, then doles it out to the military services. The services pay for it from their own separate budgets, a process that is meant to reduce duplication. – The Hill
The Pentagon is fighting back on this report saying they have gotten a savings on fuel costs in the recent years due to lower oil prices and that some years the program sees a gain and some years a loss.
So who do you believe? Is this story really about nothing as the Pentagon claims or is the Washington Post on to something?
Featured image of U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Jeremy Jimenez, a crew chief assigned to the 169th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron of the South Carolina Air National Guard, connecting a fuel hose to an F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet during “hot-pit” ground refueling training on the flight line at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, S.C., Feb. 7, 2016 by Senior Airman Ashleigh S. Pavelek, U.S. Air National Guard photo
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