| |
|
Welcome Inspector General Paul Martin
|
|
In January, Paul Martin joined USAID OIG as Inspector General after his confirmation by the Senate.
IG Martin joins USAID OIG with extensive Federal oversight experience, including serving for 14 years as NASA's Inspector General. Before that, he served as Deputy Inspector General and held other leadership positions for 12 years at the Department of Justice OIG. IG Martin continues to serve as the Vice Chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.
|
|
|
IG Martin Joins Inspectors General Delegation to Ukraine
In late January, IG Martin and Adam Kaplan from USAID OIG traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine with Robert P. Storch, Inspector General, Department of Defense (DoD) and the Special Inspector General for Operation Atlantic Resolve, and Diana Shaw, Acting Inspector General, Department of State. The three Inspectors General and staff met with Ukrainian Ministers, anticorruption entities, and civil society organizations to further oversight of the U.S. government’s Ukraine response. The group also held meetings with Bridget Brink, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, leadership at the USAID Mission in Kyiv, and USAID-funded contractors and grantees operating in Ukraine.
Read more about the trip in the Inspectors General joint press release.
Photo: IGs from USAID, DoD and State Department and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Brink meet with Ukraine's Minister of Finance, Sergii Marchenko.
|
Three Inspectors General Meet With Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States
In March, the three Inspectors General met with Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, to discuss expanding oversight of the billions of dollars in military and non-military aid provided by the United States, and specifically obtaining access to Ukrainian government records necessary for the OIGs' ongoing review work.
|
Evaluation of USAID's Direct Budget Support to Ukraine Through the World Bank's Single Donor Trust Fund
To date, USAID has directed $22.9 billion in direct budget support (DBS) to the government of Ukraine. Of that amount, $1.7 billion was channeled through the World Bank's Single Donor Trust Fund (SDTF) to reimburse Ukraine for the salaries of healthcare workers. USAID’s contribution to the SDTF was limited to funding verifiable salary expenditures for these healthcare workers.
We conducted an evaluation to determine to what extent safeguards and controls for DBS through the SDTF are operating effectively. We found that USAID ensured that the government of Ukraine adhered to required controls but did not verify the accuracy of healthcare worker salaries in expenditure reports.
The report recommended that USAID implement an action plan to verify the accuracy of salary expenditure reports and remediate any identified deficiencies.
|
Operation Atlantic Resolve Special Inspector General Quarterly Report to Congress
The Special Inspector General for Operation Atlantic Resolve released its first quarterly report summarizing the U.S. government’s support to Ukraine. This report also highlights the planned, ongoing, and completed oversight work conducted by the OIGs for USAID, DoD, State, and partner oversight agencies.
This work is detailed in the full report and report in brief.
|
USAID's Assistance to Address Global Food Security Impacted by Russia's War Against Ukraine
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has greatly impacted the global food system and contributed to worldwide increases in agricultural commodity prices. As a result, countries far beyond Ukraine’s borders have experienced increased food insecurity. Through two supplemental appropriations, the U.S. government has devoted more than $1 billion in food security funding for development assistance to Ukraine and other countries experiencing an elevated risk of food insecurity. USAID OIG's information brief summarizes USAID’s assistance efforts to address global food security.
Our future oversight work in this area includes an audit on USAID's efforts to use Ukraine supplemental funding to address global food security.
|
USAID OIG’s Office of Investigations’ recent situational alert highlights a fraud risk that we detected in our oversight of USAID’s Ukraine response. The alert, disseminated across the aid sector, identifies steps that USAID-funded grantees and contractors can take to mitigate the risk of conflicts of interest in their programs.
Download the alert in both English and Ukrainian.
|
Ukraine Investigations Dashboard
The Office of Investigations released an updated dashboard that includes reports of alleged misconduct related to USAID programming for Ukraine.
This dashboard includes information from the first quarter of fiscal year 2024.
|
|
|
|
Audits, Inspections, and Evaluations Updates
|
|
Audit of USAID's Response to Democratic Backsliding in Latin America and the Caribbean
For approximately 40 years, USAID has provided aid to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to bolster democratic institutions. Combatting democratic backsliding remains a key USAID priority.
Our audit found that selected LAC missions took steps to adapt their democracy, human rights, and government programs in response to democratic backsliding and identified the need for additional guidance. Additionally, interagency and internal coordination played a role in selected missions’ response to democratic backsliding, but USAID has not fully leveraged internal knowledge sharing.
We made two recommendations in the audit report.
|
Audit of USAID's Response to the Rohingya Crisis
The Rohingya people—a Muslim minority in Burma—have faced discrimination, targeted violence, and human rights violations for many years, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. From August 2017 to September 2022, the U.S. government provided nearly $1.9 billion in humanitarian assistance in Burma and Bangladesh for the crisis and has primarily used public international organizations, such as UN agencies, and international NGOs to carry out this assistance.
Our audit of USAID's response to the Rohingya crisis found that ongoing challenges limit USAID's ability to move from humanitarian to development assistance.
We made six recommendations to improve USAID’s humanitarian and development assistance efforts in response to the Rohingya crisis.
|
Indirect cost rates are used to reimburse contractors and grantees for costs incurred in carrying out foreign assistance programs. Examples include office space, utilities, and salaries that are not directly tied to a specific award. Our overall audit objective was to determine the extent to which USAID applied best practices for managing the indirect costs charged by its award recipients to USAID awards.
We made six recommendations to ensure contractor and grantee indirect costs are negotiated and applied in compliance with government-wide and USAID requirements.
|
Corruption undermines development efforts and threatens national security. USAID’s 2004 anticorruption approach broadly aimed to counter corruption occurring within host-country boundaries. The Agency's 2022 approach expands this focus to include additional forms of corruption at the country, regional, and global levels.
This information brief summarizes USAID’s approaches to anticorruption and provides a snapshot of the Agency’s anticorruption efforts in Asia.
|
Recently Announced
- We are auditing USAID’s risk assessment and monitoring of public international organizations (including United Nations agencies).
- We are auditing USAID/West Africa’s efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism.
Non-Federal Audits
- We are performing quality control over audits of USAID and MCC grantees completed by non-Federal independent public accounting firms as required by law. Memos of our non-Federal review transmittals are published on our Plans and Reports page.
|
|
Operation Inherent Resolve
The 36th quarterly report submitted by the Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) summarizes the quarter’s key events and oversight of the U.S. mission to
defeat ISIS and train, advise, and help local partners—including the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)— improve regional stability. The report describes USAID’s specific programming and USAID OIG’s associated oversight efforts.
See the full report and report in brief.
|
This quarterly report submitted by the Lead Inspector General for Operation Enduring Sentinel (OES) summarizes the events that took place in Afghanistan this quarter. These include the status of efforts to combat terrorist organizations, such as ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) and al Qaeda, as well as U.S. diplomatic and humanitarian efforts related to Afghanistan. The report highlight’s USAID’s specific programming and OIG’s associated oversight efforts.
See the full report and report in brief.
|
|
|
Investigative Summary: Findings of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by a USAID Grantee Employee in Southern Africa
USAID OIG initiated an investigation after receiving information alleging that that an employee of a USAID grantee impregnated his 13-year-old niece, a USAID beneficiary.
OIG corroborated the allegation and found that the employee worked as a Community School Program Facilitator under a USAID funded program that aims to reduce the risk of HIV for adolescent girls and young women.
The OIG completed its investigation and provided its report to USAID who subsequently debarred the individual from receiving or participating in Federal awards for 7 years.
|
Investigation of Fraud Results in Sentencing
 |
|
An employee of a non-profit organization was sentenced to four years of probation and ordered to repay $419,000 following her guilty plea to a charge of wire fraud involving USAID funding. This result comes after a joint investigation conducted by special agents from USAID and State OIGs in partnership with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont.
Read the DOJ press release below:
|
Other Recent Investigative Work
|
|
New USAID OIG Office of International Partnerships and Overseas Contingency Operations
|
|
USAID OIG has established a new unit focused on International Partnerships and Overseas Contingency Operations (OCOs). This unit – managed on an Acting basis by Adam Kaplan – manages OIG relationships with the United Nations and other multilateral and bilateral oversight counterparts and enhances OIG’s oversight of U.S. foreign assistance. The unit also works with the Inspectors General for DoD and State to produce congressionally mandated reports for OCOs and coordinates related oversight efforts across USAID OIG. The unit, responsible for coordination of USAID OIG’s Ukraine-related oversight, also includes our Office of Legislative and Public Affairs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
