When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the USAID Mission in Ukraine (USAID/Ukraine) managed 41 awards across the country totaling roughly $1.1 billion. In response to the escalating hostilities and USAID/Ukraine’s increased need for flexible programming, the Administrator granted approval for the mission to modify its awards to address wartime conditions. Our recent audit found that USAID/Ukraine adjusted its internal processes and strategies to support recovery goals for Ukraine.

The Full Audit Report and Report in Brief detail our audit to determine the extent to which:

1. USAID/Ukraine assessed selected awardees’ past performance and capacity before modifying development awards to respond to Russia’s invasion, and

2. Selected modified awards supported recovery goals in Ukraine.

USAID continues to update its processes and modification of existing awards to respond to Russia’s invasion.

Our latest information brief of USAID's Ukraine programming details USAID's staffing footprint following the February 12, 2022, order for all non-emergency personnel to depart from Embassy Kyiv. 

As of April 2023, USAID's staffing in Ukraine was at 58 percent of pre-invasion levels, even as its development and humanitarian assistance programming in the country increased by more than 224 percent.

As of October 18, 2023, USAID OIG's oversight of USAID's Ukraine programming falls under the Overseas Contingency Operation (OCO), Operation Atlantic Resolve (OAR), following the Lead IG framework. See the announcement from the Chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).

USAID OIG will continue to work closely with our oversight partners at the OIGs from the Departments of Defense (DoD) and State to deliver comprehensive and effective oversight of the wider U.S. response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This work is detailed in the latest Joint Strategic Oversight Plan for Operation Atlantic Resolve and Report in Brief.

USAID OIG issued a fraud awareness alert to proactively identify potential types of fraud schemes that are considered high-risk in nonpermissive environments. 

The alert comes in the wake of the October 18 announcement that the U.S. is providing $100 million in humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.

We expect prompt reporting from United Nations agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and contractors operating in the region of allegations of misuse of USAID assistance.

On November 30, USAID OIG issued our Semiannual Report to Congress, covering our work from April 1, 2023, through September 30, 2023. This report summarizes the results and impact of our oversight of USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Inter-American Foundation, and the U.S. African Development Foundation.

During this reporting period, we audited more than $10 billion in funds, issued 252 performance and financial audits and other reports, and provided fraud awareness briefings to over 5,000 participants worldwide. This reporting period also marked our highest number of law enforcement actions since before the pandemic. This report details some of those actions, including investigations of child labor, sexual misconduct, and whistleblower retaliation affecting U.S. foreign assistance programs. We also played a key role on task forces established to disrupt human trafficking networks, foreign gangs, and pandemic relief fraud.

Read the Full Report and Appendixes.

On November 16, USAID OIG issued our Top Management Challenges Facing USAID in Fiscal Year 2024. Based on our oversight work, we identified the following four top management challenges confronting USAID in fiscal year 2024:

1. Curbing Corruption, Abuse, and Fraud That Degrade U.S. Foreign Assistance

2. Mitigating Programming Risks, Increasing Accountability, Improving Stakeholder Awareness, and Strengthening Agency Documentation

3. Optimizing a Workforce to Deliver on USAID’s Mission

4. Implementing Financial and Information Technology Controls to Safeguard Taxpayer Resources

These challenges demonstrate the need for continued oversight to guide the Agency’s responsible stewardship of U.S. foreign assistance funding and highlight the risks that may impact USAID programs. The report also includes information on USAID’s progress in meeting the top management challenges it faced in fiscal year 2023.

Last month, CIGIE hosted the 26th annual awards ceremony honoring achievements of the Inspector General community. USAID OIG received the following four awards for recent accomplishments in safeguarding vital U.S. foreign assistance from fraud, waste, corruption, and sexual exploitation and abuse:

• Gaston Gianni, Jr., Better Government Award—CIGIE's second-highest award— for OIG’s investigative and legal work that secured and analyzed evidence that allowed USAID to hold officials from the UN World Health Organization accountable for sexually exploiting and abusing women and girls in Africa. 
• Sentner Award for Dedication and Courage was received by OIG's Special Agent Phillips in recognition of her tireless investigative efforts to improve USAID OIG operations, as well as groundbreaking work on a violent crime gang task force.
• Award for Excellence in recognition of OIG’s Agile Oversight Forum Team's efforts to execute a first-of-its-kind learning event focused on best practices in agile oversight during CIGIE’s January 2023 Agile Oversight Forum.
• Award for Excellence in recognition of the OIG’s Ukraine Working Group's dedication to ensuring whole-of-government oversight and reporting of the U.S. government’s assistance to Ukraine.

On December 1, USAID OIG issued our Organizational Assessment for Fiscal Year 2023. This assessment details the progress made in fiscal year 2023 toward delivering on OIG's mission to provide effective oversight of U.S. foreign assistance programs and operations, while simultaneously meeting our internal goals for developing a high-performing and inclusive organization.

Specifically, this assessment details the progress we made toward the following three goals outlined in our Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2022-2026:

Goal 1: Foster a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and committed OIG workforce built on shared core values.
Goal 2: Promote processes that enhance OIG performance and maximize operational efficiency.
Goal 3: Provide sound reporting and insight for improving foreign assistance programs, operations, and resources.

Our recent audit found that enhanced controls could strengthen USAID’s management of expedited procurement procedures for COVID-19 programming.

The Report in Brief and Full Report detail our audit to determine the extent to which:

1. USAID used the Expedited Procedures Package for Responding to Outbreaks of Contagious Infectious Diseases (Outbreak EPP) for COVID-19 programming, and
2. Selected USAID Operating Units met requirements for using the Outbreak EPP for COVID-19.

We made four recommendations to address weaknesses in how USAID tracks and reports Outbreak EPP information and assesses the continued need of the Outbreak EPP.

In response to concerns about how common administrative support services are provided at post, we conducted this inspection to determine whether USAID/South Sudan has met requirements for its role as an Alternate Service Provider of the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services (ICASS) system, which allows the U.S. government to provide and share the cost of common administrative support services among its overseas posts.

We made 11 recommendations to improve USAID/South Sudan’s management of ICASS services in Juba, South Sudan.

In September, USAID OIG issued an audit on the extent to which USAID/West Bank and Gaza identified and assessed risks after the resumption of funding and related programming in FY 2021 and FY 2022. 

We found that USAID did not document its deliberative process for identifying and assessing risks in programming. As a result, the mission did not reap the benefits of a more transparent and documented process that ensured all key stakeholders were involved in analyzing all available data. We made one recommendation to improve the mission’s process of identifying and assessing risks in its programming.

Read the Report in Brief and Full Report.

Trafficking in persons is the second largest criminal industry worldwide and affects at least 25 million victims, with the largest number in Asia.

The Report in Brief and Full Report detail our audit conducted to assess the extent that selected USAID missions in Asia:

1. Adhered to Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) programming objectives,
2. Followed guidance to designate and use C-TIP coordinators, and
3. Monitored and enforced implementer (USAID award recipient) compliance with TIP requirements

We found that improved guidance and training can strengthen USAID’s C-TIP efforts in Asia. We made five recommendations to strengthen USAID’s adherence to C-TIP Policy programming objectives, designation and use of C-TIP coordinators, and use of controls to monitor and enforce implementer compliance with TIP prevention and detection requirements.