The Pentagon’s top watchdog has a discreet but vital role in Ukraine

Editor’s note: This report has been updated to correct the number of offices overseen by the Pentagon Inspector General.

Robert Storch, inspector general (IG) of the Department of Defense, has a little-discussed but monumental job, overseeing one of the largest organizations in the world.

Storch’s Pentagon role only grew amid U.S. support for Ukraine — and after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s secret hospitalization scandal.

The Pentagon, he says, “is so big that it does everything the government does.”

“As an oversight entity, we have to have all the tools in our tool belt, we have to be able to oversee all of this.”

“We have excellent people here, many of them with extensive experience,” adds Storch, mentioning military and civil service employees. “There’s a good energy, it’s a high-performance organization.”

Overseeing Ukraine is one of the biggest ongoing projects in the inspector general’s office. It’s been a particularly thorny topic on Capitol Hill, where far-right lawmakers have expressed growing opposition to U.S. aid, in part due to concerns about the diversion of weapons destined for the embattled nation.

The US has sent more than $113 billion in aid to Kiev since Russia’s invasion, and President Biden has just sanctioned another $61 billion.

In January, Storch’s office released a report that showed the Pentagon did not adequately track nearly $1 billion in weapons sent to Ukraine, but said both Washington and Kiev are generally handling the process responsibly.

“Everyone understands the importance of accountability and transparency regarding U.S. assistance,” he says. “It’s just common sense that [Ukraine] would understand the importance of accountability and transparency to ensure that donor countries are willing to continue to give them things.”

Still, Storch says he is in the business of “trust but verify” and that his team is active in Ukraine, with personnel on the ground coordinating with the military, the State Department and the United States Agency for Intelligence. International Development as they work to ensure assistance goes to the right place.

The inspector general’s main effort is called programmatic oversight, in which a team evaluates how the Defense Department is tracking weapons. They usually end in reports and recommendations on how to improve. Storch says there is definitely “room for improvement” in Ukraine, even as authorities avoid major scandals.

Another task is more investigative, with staff working to obtain information and analyze whether misappropriation of assistance or related criminal conduct occurred.

Although his office is staunchly nonpartisan, Ukraine is a personal issue for Storch. While he was a federal prosecutor, he moved to Kiev with his family and worked with the Ukrainian government to combat corruption from December 2007 to December 2009.

Since then, he has made several more trips to Ukraine and sees real movement in the country in the fight against corruption.

“It’s gratifying to see the progress they’ve made,” he says. “In terms of perspective, first of all, it’s hard to see honestly, having lived out there [and to] see the country at war now.”

Storch’s office launched a website in March, which tracks U.S. aid sent to Ukraine, an effort he describes as a “convenient one-stop shop for people to see everything that’s going on.”

It came about after collaboration with a broader federal working group, and although it was revealed in the midst of congressional debate over sending more aid to Ukraine, Storch says it had nothing to do with politics.

“Nothing we do is timed in relation to anything that’s happening politically,” he says. “The idea of ​​bringing everything together in one place, making it convenient, was what drove this. I’m thrilled about it. Our people worked hard with our partners to put everything together.

“Sometimes we will find bad things, but people will know that someone is watching,” adds Storch. “And I think for the public that’s really important.”

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, to a large family — he had six siblings growing up — Storch earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a law degree from Columbia. He worked in a variety of law-related areas, including as a law clerk, assistant attorney, and in private practice, before joining the United States Attorney’s Office in 1995.

He spent more than two decades working as a federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice (DOJ), focusing on corruption and white-collar crime.

Storch found work as an inspector general when he was invited to join the DOJ oversight office in 2012, where he eventually became deputy inspector general.

Although he joined the inspector general’s office to “give back a little,” it wasn’t his first choice.

“I hated it my first year,” he says. “I missed carrying out the Justice Department’s mission, prosecuting and arresting bad guys.”

But the inspector general’s mission began to appeal to him, Storch says.

“I have truly appreciated the privilege we have in the IG community to be paid by the taxpayer to ensure the integrity and efficiency of government, which is a significant responsibility and privilege,” he says.

“I really realized that not only do you have the privilege of doing the work, but you can also have an impact in really important places,” he adds.

Storch later joined the National Security Agency (NSA) inspector general’s office before being confirmed to oversee the Department of Defense in November 2022.

One of the Pentagon’s biggest oversight tasks is carrying out audits of a department with more than a million military personnel and about 750,000 civilian employees.

The Pentagon has failed six consecutive audits and often fails to account for billions of dollars, a pressing issue as the department’s annual budget has ballooned to about $900 billion.

Storch says a “fundamental issue” is the Pentagon’s outdated financial management systems.

“They are fighting the battle almost with one hand behind their back with the systems they are dealing with. Until they can deal with it, it’s hard to do. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done,” he says, pointing to the U.S. Marines. passing an audit this year.

“There is still a lot of work to do,” he adds.

A high-profile problem for Storch arose in January, when Austin, the defense secretary, did not disclose to the White House and senior administration officials his hospitalization for prostate cancer until three days after he was in the intensive care unit.

Facing a backlash, the Pentagon conducted an internal review of the incident that largely cleared personnel of any wrongdoing, concluding that there was no ill intent behind the failure to disclose and notify the White House.

Storch, however, launched his own investigation into the hospitalization.

“I determined it was appropriate and that it was important to take an independent look at this,” he says. “See what happened and what the procedures are for the future.”

All of this represents a huge effort for the Pentagon inspector general’s office. Storch says he oversees 1,800 employees and more than 50 offices spread across the world, considering employees are generally based wherever military personnel work.

For Storch, the inspector general’s work has to do with the mission of accountability.

“I think it’s extremely important for oversight entities to be transparent,” he says. “There’s a phrase: ‘Sunlight is the best disinfectant’ – we want to do that in everything we do.”

–Updated at 9:09 am