Posted: 6:41 pm EDT
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On November 30, the U.S. Senate confirmed Gayle Smith as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development by a vote of 79-7.
The National Security Advisor was quick to issue a statement. The State Department’s number 2 was quick to issue a tweet.
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Posted: 1:23 am EDT
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USAID administrators, Afghanistan & #IRD scandal http://t.co/ayD6WnaQKr via @PublicDiplomacy #globaldev
— Jennifer Sisane (@jsisane) February 18, 2015
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Suspended IRD responds to allegations that it mismanaged US funding; #USAID now has 45 days to respond https://t.co/WrnMMP9LPO — Jason Lyall (@jaylyall_red5) March 1, 2015
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Nonprofit contractor, IRD, billed USAID $1.1 million for parties & staff retreats http://t.co/mxGM9e9rxn
— Pete Cronin (@petecronin) March 13, 2015
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Yeah, we investigated IRD in 2006, was on our list of USAID’s growing faith-based rolls under Bush. Boston Globe: http://t.co/9U6zEfP6WK — Kevin Baron (@DefenseBaron) March 13, 2015
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‘In a word, reprehensible’: USAID contractor billed US $1.1M for luxury parties, retreats http://t.co/yYGwvdqQHJ pic.twitter.com/4Dyz5nRKsg
— Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) March 13, 2015
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We’ve used the USAID OIG website but it does not have a smart nor responsive search function. We wanted to know how many inspections, audits, whatev reports the Office of the Inspector General at USAID did on IRD over the years. If they were rigorous in their oversight and, if USAID and the State Department did anything about it. That is an important component to this story. And if that is true, we wanted to see just how rigorous is the OIG’s oversight based on the documents it put out through the years, because how else can we tell but by the number and quality of their output?
We sent a direct message to USAID OIG via Twitter and we got a response back:
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For specific inquiries, please contact our office directly http://oig.usaid.gov/content/contact-usaid-oig
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You click on that link and you’re told that “for media or general information inquiries, contact the OIG’s Immediate Office by mail, telephone, or fax. Whoa! The Immediate Office, apparently, is not immediate enough.
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Late last year, following a Washington Post report on a USAID program in Pakistan, USAID OIG released (pdf) a statement with the following:
OIG is committed to providing products and information that are responsive to the needs of external customers and stakeholders. In responding to questions posed by Members of Congress and congressional staff, OIG has always endeavored to provide complete and accurate information based on the documentation and information available to us.
This is USAID’s largest nonprofit contractor. According to WaPo, USAID suspended IRD this past January from receiving any more federal work. The suspension came in the wake of allegations of misspending highlighted in a Post investigation in May 2014. USAID told the Post that they are cracking down on contractors who misspend tax money.
Hookay. So let’s start with finding out what type of oversight USAID OIG provided on IRD contracts since 2006. This is one time when those USAID OIG Fact Sheets would really be helpful.
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Related items:
USAID Suspends Big Contractor IRD: What Took So Long? (NonProfit Quarterly)
Doing well by doing good: The high price of working in war zones (WaPo, May 2014)
— Domani Spero
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Last week, the official blog of the State Department posted the following on QDDR 2014:
The Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), initiated by Secretary Clinton, is an opportunity for State and USAID to look forward a generation at threats and opportunities, and ensure our capabilities, structures, and allocations of resources and personnel are maximizing our ability to advance.
Secretary Kerry has asked for the 2014 QDDR, the second iteration of this strategic review, to “be a blueprint for America’s success in this new world,” and “a product that guides a modern State Department and USAID and empowers our frontline diplomats and development professionals [to] get the job done.” As part of a process of continuous improvement, this QDDR will identify emerging policy and management priorities and the organizational capabilities needed to maximize the impact and efficiency of America’s diplomatic and development efforts.
At the request of Secretary Kerry, Special Representative Thomas Perriello joined the Department in February to conduct the 2014 QDDR and oversee its implementation. He is a former Member of Congress from Virginia who has worked extensively on transitional justice and conflict prevention overseas. Deputy Secretary Heather Higginbottom and Administrator Raj Shah serve as co-chairs to foster a participatory process that engages State and USAID personnel, Congress, interagency partners, thought leaders, non-governmental organizations, the business community and the American public.
The State Department also posted the following video on the blog and in YouTube. Interested individuals are invited to send their ideas to QDDRideas@state.gov:
The State Department then tweeted about it, and asked the Twitterverse about what it must think is a most important question.
How can we do a better job of serving the American people & improving the world? Learn how to submit your thoughts: http://t.co/czkhKQO7gI
— Department of State (@StateDept) August 29, 2014
The U.S. not only must right the world’s wrong, it must now also work on “improving the world?”
Oops! The AP’s Matt Lee tweeted what we were thinking.
Egad. Just asking for trouble. “@StateDept: How can we do better job serving American people & improving the world? http://t.co/E5fRtti9fJ”
— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) August 29, 2014
A lucky thing the blog post and video went online on a holiday weekend. That said, the Internet, nonetheless, responded. We’re sorry to report that the answers are not/not pretty. Below are the tamer selection:
@StateDept Stop being the world’s police!
— Ali Sibtain (@AliSibtain) August 29, 2014
Don’t “lose” $6 billion of our money. RT @StateDept: How can we do a better job of serving the American people & improving the world? — Jimmy (@JimmyPrinceton) August 29, 2014
@JimmyPrinceton @StateDept Hire credible spokesmen/women to answer questions.
— C. Irwin (@Bookwormdearlor) August 29, 2014
Resign. All Of You. MT @StateDept: How can we do a better job of serving the American people & improving the world? http://t.co/0WiP1lUu1z”
— I Yam What I Yam (@Nvr4Get91101) August 30, 2014
@StateDept, for the love of God stop tweeting. What the hell is wrong with you people at Foggy Bottom? This isn’t American Idol.
— Libertine (@uscoptic) August 29, 2014
Ouch! This 21st Century public square is pretty wild. You never know who’s going to show up or what you’re gonna hear or who are going for the slug feast. But a serious question; for purposes of the upcoming QDDR, how is this really helpful?
The current QDDR office is staffed with one special rep, Mr. Perriello, one deputy director, a staff assistant, two senior advisors and three policy analysts. This is the group tasked with engaging with State and USAID personnel, Congress, interagency partners, thought leaders, non-governmental organizations, and the business community. In addition, the same group presumably will have to comb through the submitted ideas the State Department is soliciting through QDDRideas@state.gov from the American public. We’d like to see how much of the publicly generated ideas would make it to the QDDR 2014 report and how “a better job” would actually be measured.
We have to admit that our jaded slip maybe showing here but how come we feel as if this has a campaign flavor of sort? We’re almost afraid they’re going to ask us for $25 for a chance to have coffee with Mr. Perriello. Sorry, that’s just us, sweet ones. If you’ve got ideas, they want it need it at QDDRideas@state.gov.
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— Domani Spero
The month of April started off with a bang for USAID! We saw the Twitter Cubano story first, and then there’s USAID’s reportedly $1billion a year “DARPA-like” innovation lab. Also SIGAR John Sopko accused USAID of cover up in Afghanistan. And no, USAID Administrator is not going to New Delhi as the next US Ambassador to India. We were seriously intrigued by the ZunZuneo story, the secret Cuban Twitter reported by the Associated Press. Can you blame us?
State Dept: There were a number of ‘misconceptions’ in AP’s ‘breathlessly written’ story on USAID & Cuban Twitter. Says was in no way covert
— Hannah Allam (@HannahAllam) April 3, 2014
We thought the Associated Press did a great investigative piece. Sorry, we are not convinced that this was ‘breathlessly written.’
In July 2010, Joe McSpedon, a U.S. government official, flew to Barcelona to put the final touches on a secret plan to build a social media project aimed at undermining Cuba’s communist government.
McSpedon and his team of high-tech contractors had come in from Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Washington and Denver. Their mission: to launch a messaging network that could reach hundreds of thousands of Cubans. To hide the network from the Cuban government, they would set up a byzantine system of front companies using a Cayman Islands bank account, and recruit unsuspecting executives who would not be told of the company’s ties to the U.S. government.
McSpedon didn’t work for the CIA. This was a program paid for and run by the U.S. Agency for International Development, best known for overseeing billions of dollars in U.S. humanitarian aid.
For a look on how much the U.S. Government spent on Cuban Democracy between 1996-2011, see a snapshot of the funding here.
In an interview with Popular Science, USAID’s Administrator, Rajiv Shah, who led USAID through the program, defended it.
“One of the areas we work in is in the area of rights protection and accountability,” Shah said. The highest-level official named in the AP documents is a mid-level manager named Joe McSpedon.
But Shah—despite the fact that the program was unknown to the public—said the idea that ZunZuneo was a covert operation is “inaccurate,” and pointed out that there are other USAID programs that require secrecy, such as protecting the identities of humanitarian workers in Syria. “These projects are notified to Congress and the subject of a thorough accountability report,” he said.
The AP story mentions two USAID connected companies: Creative Associates International as contractor and Denver-based Mobile Accord Inc. as one of the subcontractors.
According to Denver Business Journal, Mobile Accord is the parent organization of the mGive business, which helps nonprofits raise donation via text message, and of the GeoPoll business handling opinion surveys in developing nations.
The Guardian reports that the money that Creative Associates spent on ZunZuneo was “publicly earmarked for an unspecified project in Pakistan, government data show. But there is no indication of where the funds were actually spent.”
So we went digging over at USASpending.gov. The first contract we located is a State Department contract with Mobile Accord in the amount of $969,000 and signed on September 18, 2009. The contract description says: “Short Message Service Support to Be Provided to Displaced People in the Northwest Frontier of PAKISTAN.”
The second contract also with Mobile Accord in the amount of $720,000 was signed in July 8, 2010:
So if Twitter Cubano was not a “covert”operation, what’s this over $1.6 million contract between the State Department and Mobile Accord for the Northwest Frontier Pakistan about? The folks who prepared this data for USASpending.gov did not really intend to be inaccurate with this public information, right? They just inadvetently spelled ‘Cuba’ as ‘Northwest Frontier Pakistan.’
And this is the official version of ‘truth in reporting”as public service? What you don’t know can’t harm you?
If this money actually went to Twitter Cubano, and was hidden in plain sight, how are we to believe the accuracy of the data we see on the USASpending website?
Where else do we have similar projects for democracy promotion and/or regime change if possible, do you know?
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