Ahalf billion dollar fraud and bribery scheme conducted by a USAID contract officer and three conspirators that went undetected for a decade. American-bought equipment stolen by a terror group. Millions of dollars in food that spoiled in warehouses. These are but a few of the wasteful — if not corrupt ways — millions of USAID dollars have been lost.
While President Donald Trump has sharply cut foreign aid from the auspices of USAID and shifted what remains to the State Department, the massive abuse of America’s generosity to foreign countries over a decade of Obama-Biden governance is coming into clearer focus.
A Just the News review of audits and investigations of the USAID and State Department inspectors general over the last year chronicles billions of dollars lost, stolen, defrauded, or wasted because of mismanagement or years of neglect.
In many cases, tax money was given away without regard to whether the recipients could responsibly spend it or could keep it out of the hands of terrorists or other enemies, the audits show.
For instance, the USAID inspector general recently revealed that the federal government kept funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) despite evidence that 101 of its employees or associates had ties to terror groups like Hamas, including:
- A deputy school principal serving as an al-Qassam deputy company commander in the Ain Gallout/5th infantry battalion.
- A deputy school principal serving as squad leader for the Khan Younis Brigade/2nd infantry battalion.
- A teacher serving as squad leader in Hamas’ military security department/intelligence unit who tracked assignment of explosive devices.
- A teacher serving as a platoon commander of the Central Brigade/Al Quds 2nd Battalion.
- A math & computer teacher with ties to an al-Qassam intelligence squad.
- A teacher with expertise as a sniper for Hamas.
- A teacher and Hamas soldier with orders to bring two anti-tank missiles to a prescribed location during the October 7 terror attacks
- A school principal who served as an operative of the Hamas East Jabaliya Battalion, and coordinated communications with other suspected Hamas members during the October 7, 2023 atrocities committed against Israel
Similarly, the same USAID watchdog revealed that the Yemen-based terror Ansar Allah — also known as the Houthis—walked away with about $122,000 worth of U.S. government-funded equipment from a USAID-funded aid organization.
$17 million of the $21 million of food aid stored in warehouses was not distributed to emergency food providers. Some good-intentioned aid also was wasted by bad management and logistics, the audits show.
For instance, about $17 million of the $21 million of food aid stored in Djibouti warehouses was not distributed to emergency food providers.
That included $10 million of goods at risk of reaching its best-used-by date prior to arriving at its intended destination. About $2.9 million of food aid had already spoiled due to significant packaging defects by the vendor, investigators reported.
To make matters worse, taxpayers incurred at least nearly $500,000 in storage costs for spoiled, unusable food. And another $1.5 million in food became infested because USAID “did not enforce temperature control requirements,” eventually requiring additional fumigation costs, the memos stated.
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