USAID

USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) has long been roundly criticized in other countries as a cover for stirring unrest and destabilizing governments...as a virtual extension of the CIA. Here’s just one more incident to make that believable.

Less than a year [after Hosni Mubarak was ousted and USAID paid for other NGOs to “democratize” Egypt], the Egyptian government charged 43 NGO workers with operating illegally. Sixteen of them were Americans, including the son of then-U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  [review the story here]

The Americans were freed in March 2012 after USAID secretly paid the Egyptian government $4.6 million in “bail” money.

That May, USAID’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) completed a confidential draft audit of the program that questioned the wisdom of the program and the legality of using the money to post bail.

But when the inspector general’s office publicly issued its final audit report five months later, those findings and other critical conclusions had been removed. [...] What was once a 21-page report had been reduced to nine.

[...]

On Wednesday, [acting USAID inspector general Michael G.] Carroll withdrew his nomination [for the permanent postion], which had been pending for 16 months. Carroll declined to discuss his decision.

[...]

He told his staff that he plans to remain in the office as a deputy inspector general.

[...]

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) [ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees all federal inspectors general] said he was concerned after his office looked into complaints by a half-dozen whistleblowers who say their audits were altered.

“You don’t hardly ever see this with other IGs,” Coburn recently told The Post. “You certainly don’t see it to this extent. This is the worst we’ve seen.”

[...]

The allegations of improperly altered audit reports were independently examined last year by the National Labor Relations Board’s inspector general. [USAID IG Carroll’s chief of staff, Justin H.] Brown said the confidential examination, which concluded in May 2013, “did not substantiate the allegations” and recommended that “no disciplinary or administrative action be taken.”

  WaPo

Of course. Confidential.

NLRB Inspector General David P. Berry said through a spokeswoman: “We cannot confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”

Very confidential.

“I don’t think they’re cleared at all,” said [Senator] Coburn. [...] “The people who actually knew what was going on were never actually interviewed. This is the first time in my career that I have some doubts about the integrity of one of these investigations.”

That’s rich, though, isn’t it? A politician questioning the integrity of anybody.

Brown says allegations of covering up are unfounded. He claims discrepancies occur because they are short-staffed and have too much work, no time. And yet, they had time to remove negative information from the reports. Funny how that worked out.

The Post reporters managed to get hold of 12 audit drafts and compared them to the final published versions. They found more than 400 negative references that were deleted from the final reports.

In one audit, the number of negative references fell from 113 to 61; in another, from 170 to 13.

[...]

At the USAID inspector general’s office, several auditors and employees told The Post that their authority has been undermined, and some have hired attorneys to file whistleblower and employment discrimination claims. Auditors stationed in different offices around the world have come forward with similar complaints.

In 2010, USAID (probably under pressure) set up a program to reduce fraud and waste in the billion-dollar aid allotment to Pakistan.

In a draft audit of the program written in 2012, auditors found that $32 million of the program’s $44 million budget went to “fringe benefits, consultants and travel.” Auditors also found that one contractor hired to provide training billed the agency $954,000 for “expenses such as salaries, fringe benefits, and travel” but did not train anyone for the 16 months of the contract.

Those findings were removed from the final report.

Governance?

And I think there's a typo..."conflict mitigation"...I think they meant "conflict instigation".

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.