RPT - State Department OIG Reviewing Lawmakers' Request To Probe US-Russia Ventilator Exchange

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2020) The US State Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) is reviewing a request from House lawmakers to investigate whether the exchange of ventilators with Russia violated sanctions, an OIG spokesman told Sputnik on Thursday.

"We have received the congressional letter and are reviewing it to determine whether and what oversight work OIG may undertake on this issue," OIG spokesman Mark Huffman said.

On Wednesday, a group of US House lawmakers wrote a letter to the OIGs, or internal watchdogs, at the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, asking them to probe the exchange of ventilators between Russia and the US last spring.

On Tuesday, a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spokesperson confirmed to Sputnik that the United States has disposed of 45 Russian-made lung ventilators.