USAID Isn’t Properly Assessing Fraud Risk in Humanitarian Aid to War-Torn Countries Like Ukraine: Report

The government agency in charge of administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is not properly assessing or documenting the fraud risk in allocating the money in countries such as Ukraine, a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report noted. The report, released on April 30, said that after reviewing USAID’s policy and procedures, the agency—which allocated $26 billion to at least 19 countries experiencing conflict last year—isn’t following its own practices. The “GAO found that, contrary to leading practices, USAID did not comprehensively assess or document, in fraud risk profiles, the relevant fraud risks affecting its assistance in the three conflict-affected countries GAO selected for its review—Nigeria, Somalia, and Ukraine,” the report noted. “As a result, USAID cannot ensure it has identified and is mitigating all relevant fraud risks in these countries.”...