Donald Trump reportedly fired the federal watchdog responsible for overseeing the US Agency for International Development (USAid) on Tuesday, one day after the independent inspector general issued a damning report detailing the impact of the president’s sudden dismantling of the agency.
Trump reportedly fires watchdog who oversees USAid after damning report Paul Martin, an independent inspector general and Biden appointee, warned of drastic effects of shuttering USAid.
Martin found that “widespread staffing reductions across the agency … coupled with uncertainty about the scope of foreign assistance waivers and permissible communications with implementers, has degraded USAid’s ability to distribute and safeguard taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance”.
He also noted that the agency had lost almost all ability to track $8.2bn in unspent humanitarian aid – affecting its ability to ensure none of it falls into the hands of violent extremist groups or goes astray in conflict zones.
The order notes that agency heads “will undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force and determine which agency components (or agencies themselves) may be eliminated or combined because their functions aren’t required by law”.
