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WASHINGTON: The State Department’s hurried takeover of aid programmes from the shuttered US Agency for International Development (USAID) last year was hampered by staffing shortages, IT issues and delayed guidance, an internal watchdog said in a report released on Monday.
President Donald Trump ordered the closure of USAID shortly after returning to office in January last year. Well over 10,000 people were fired and thousands of programmes cancelled, throwing into turmoil US-funded aid operations on which millions of the world’s poorest people depended.
The State Department’s Office of Inspector General said in its report that aid projects carrying $51.5 billion in obligated funds were transferred just as the department was undergoing its own reorganisation.
The “green list” of awards that survived the shutdown of USAID comprised 1,504 aid awards, including projects in conflict zones like Ukraine, Israel and the Palestinian territories, it said.
