by Natalia Mittelstadt
The Trump administration identified programs ranging from contraceptives for Afghanistan to LGBTQ diversity programs for European countries as clear evidence that foreign aid needed to be paused and reevaluated.
A former executive inside the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) warns of corruption in the agency that is currently being reviewed and purged by the Trump administration, alleging that among politicians, it is mostly Democrats who benefited from its funding.
Mark Moyar, former director of the Office of Civilian-Military Cooperation at USAID in the first Trump administration, explains the corruption he saw within the agency and the lack of transparency, as he looks forward to its reduction. He also claims that Democrats have benefited more from the agency’s funding than Republicans, based on his own personal experience.
During the first few weeks of the second Trump administration, a main priority has been to purge USAID. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been designated as the acting director of USAID, and the Trump administration is trying to reduce the agency by thousands of employees.
The Trump administration identified USAID programs ranging from contraceptives for Afghanistan to LGBT diversity programs for European countries as clear evidence that foreign aid needed to be paused and reevaluated, a task that fell to the State Department.
The development agency for years funneled money to several nonprofit groups that also received substantial backing from components of George Soros’ empire. Some previously came under scrutiny during the Obama administration for “democracy promotion” and judicial reform efforts in European countries that critics claimed promoted leftist politics.
On Monday, the General Services Administration confirmed that USAID had been stripped of the lease for its headquarters building in Washington, D.C.
Amid the USAID overhaul, Moyar, a USAID whistleblower, told the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show on Friday about the various issues with transparency and accountability the agency has had.
“So in the first Trump administration, when I served, we had great difficulty getting information. We've seen in the news, Congress can't get information from them. The bureaucrat is very good at hiding things, so it’s not until this really drastic effort to shut things down that we have access,” Moyar said.
“And so I think we're going to see, in the weeks ahead, we're going to find out about a lot of corruption we didn't even know about – a lot of waste, fraud and abuse. And we've seen these few small programs, but there's going to be a lot more. So I think it's probably too early to know, but clearly a lot of things will go entirely and other things need to get pared down because we're spending too much money on them.”
Moyar, who is the William P. Harris Chair in Military History at Hillsdale College, later explained part of the reason why Trump’s first term saw limited reduction in waste, fraud and abuse.
“In the first Trump administration, they tried to do this, but I would say with very limited success, partly because you actually had problems with the Trump appointees,” he said. “We had a very senior Trump appointee who was married to the top lobbyist for the aid industry, which was a big problem. So this time around, we don't have that, and we are taking a much more concerted approach.
“Last time, it was kind of like, ‘we'll peek in and we'll see if we find a few things that we don't like and get rid of them,’ whereas this time it's, ‘we're going to take everything out, and we have to have evidence that this is actually helping us.’ And so I think you'll see a much bigger chunk of what aid is doing, scrutinized and removed.”
Moyar also discussed his personal experience calling out corruption in USAID when he worked there. “I dealt with the Office of Security, which is in charge of this vetting,” Moyar said, referring to vetting where USAID payments are sent. “They also deal with security clearances. After I reported some people for corruption, one of the things that happened is one of those corrupt people actually went to work in the Office of Security to escape from me because he was in my office."
“And then they didn't actually take away the clearances of any of these corrupt people, but they came after my security clearance,” he explained. “And this office can operate with a lot of impunity, and they do so, so it becomes a weaponized tool. There's all sorts of corruption that never leads to problems with the clearance, but they came after me, the one person who was trying to to fight the corruption. But they're supposed to be doing the vetting.
“And then the Office of Inspector General is also supposed to be keeping an eye on this, and they've been doing a terrible job as well, and I've dealt with them a lot. Now, they've recently changed leaders – we'll see how that goes, but they've been a huge part of the problem.”
The change in the Office of Inspector General comes as President Donald Trump removed nearly 20 inspectors general within federal agencies during his first week in office.
Moyar mentioned that the funding of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the United Nations, and contractors through USAID are receiving public backlash, and that among the politicians, it is Democrats who mostly benefit from the funds.
“Well, there certainly is a lot of money going through that ends up in the hands of NGOs and the UN and contractors, and I think that is part of the outcry. I will say, the large majority of that I think does go to Democrats, because they tend to be much more influential," Moyar said.
“There are a small number of Republicans, but I can tell you, after the first Trump administration, those of us who worked in the administration were shut out of these NGOs and contractors, you know; whereas, in 2017, or if you look what's happening right now, they love all the former Obama and Biden people. So it is, for the most part, really, the Democrats who are enriching themselves from the $42 billion budget of USAID.”
Moyar also noted the left-wing ideology that USAID had, based on what the agency spent its funding on. “When you've got just millions and millions of dollars on these DEI consultants, which I think most people would question whether there's any value – in fact, probably it's causing more harm than good because of the divisive ideology,” Moyar said.
“But then they also, under Samantha Power, who led this agency under Biden, they tried to infuse DEI feminist lenses, transgenders into all sorts of programs. So even things you would think would not be involved – like healthcare, for example, economic growth – those ideologies have infiltrated into just about everything the agency does.”
Natalia Mittelstadt
Source: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/former-usaid-director-warns-corruption-agency-says-democrats-benefited
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