The U.S. Agency for International Development gave a Virginia company $600,000 in hurricane funds to help carry out a program aimed at boosting Cuba’s civil society, USASpending.gov records show.
International Relief & Development, or IRD, received a total of $3,096,978 in USAID funds in 2008 and 2009, records show. USAID gave the company the $600,000 in hurricane funds on Sept. 24, 2008 (see enlarged timeline).
The Arlington, Va., company works in more than 40 countries, but does not mention any Cuba work on its website.
Company officials have made public meetings they have with Bisa Williams, the State Department’s former coordinator of Cuban Affairs, and staffers of Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and outspoken critic of the Cuban government.
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$600,000 in hurricane funds used for Cuba program
Up to $30 million for Internet freedom projects in Cuba, other nations
The State Department plans to spend up to $30 million for Internet freedom projects in Cuba and other nations.
In a Jan. 11 notice (download PDF), the agency solicited project ideas from U.S. organizations interested in carrying out Internet freedom projects in Cuba and other nations. Feb. 7 was the deadline.
The State Department has not named – and likely will not announce – the organizations that will carry out the projects. The agency said it would solicit ideas, pick the best projects, then ask the organizations to submit formal proposals.
Grants of $500,000 to $8 million each are up for grabs. The awards are expected to total about $30 million. The money is coming from the federal government’s fiscal 2010 budget, not the 2011 budget.
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USAID: Nearly $2 million for Cuba audits
Since April 2008, USAID has paid a Washington, D.C., accounting firm at least $1.9 million for audits and financial services related to the agency’s Cuba program. Budget records show four payments:
- $169,000 paid on April 15, 2008.
- $831,000 paid on July 28, 2008.
- $300,000 paid on April 12, 2010.
- $600,000 paid on July 27, 2010, as part of a contract that is set to end on April 11, 2011.
Total: $1.9 million.
The DMP Group conducted the audits and other services in exchange for the $1.9 millon. Earlier today, I sent two Freedom of Information Act requests to USAID, asking for any reports and audits that The DMP Group has produced in connection with these contracts. You can see these and other pending FOIA requests here.
Government website sheds light on USAID contracts
In December 2010, the Obama administration began publishing the names of government subcontractors and the dollar amounts they receive on a website called USAspending. Recipients of grants larger than $25,000 are now required to name the companies they hire, according to Charles Davis, an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. Davis wrote in the winter 2011 edition of the IRE Journal:
The data will prove to be a goldmine for local reporting, because it allows the researcher to drill down to the granular level, revealing contract relationships that took months to unravel the old-fashioned way: one time-consuming FOI request at a time.
Until now, the federal government reported only the companies that won major, or prime, government contracts – even if those companies turned around and hired a small army of subcontractors to do most of the job on the ground. Now reporters can follow more accurately where dollars are going… (more…)
Cuba expert: USAID put American in “predictable danger”
Phil Peters, a former State Department official, called for an end on Wednesday to “high-cost, low-impact Bush-era” USAID programs that put American contract worker Alan Gross in “predictable danger.”
Peters, who writes a blog called the Cuban Triangle, said Gross faced an impossible mission: “to evade a communist intelligence apparatus” that spreads across the island, and then somehow install satellite Internet networks.
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Agency chief: USAID’s mission reflects American values
Rajiv Shah, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, urged lawmakers on Wednesday not to slash the agency’s budget. He described reforms that he said would increase USAID’s efficiency, engage private enterprise and harness new technologies.
Shah said:
Delivering foreign assistance through these innovative approaches will lead to dramatic, meaningful gains in human welfare throughout the developing world.
Our assistance represents the spirit of our country’s generosity; captured in USAID’s motto: ‘From the American People.’
But now more than ever, it is critical that the American people understand that our assistance also delivers real benefits for the American people: it keeps our country safe, develops the markets of tomorrow and expresses our collective values.
