Exclusive: USAID officials tour missions worldwide as agency shutters

Top officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development went on a world tour last month, visiting missions from the Philippines to El Salvador just days after the agency formally ceased to exist on July 1. “It’s like a victory lap, and to be able to go to Congress and say, ‘Hey, we oversaw an orderly transition from USAID to the State Department,’” said a senior official at one of those missions. “But there’s nothing orderly about this.” The State Department did not answer a request for comment on the trip, nor explain what it was meant to accomplish after USAID was officially shut down. The group was led by Ken Jackson, USAID’s deputy administrator for management and resources. Jackson was accompanied by Marcus Thornton, USAID’s deputy chief of staff — a diplomat who is also the co-founder of Feds for Freedom, an anti-vaccine organization created by federal employees and others to fight against "government overreach” during the COVID-19 pandemic. At least two other newly appointed USAID officials also joined the trip, which spanned Belgium, El Salvador, Egypt, Guatemala, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, the Philippines, and Senegal. That’s according to two USAID staff in those countries and several others familiar with the matter, all of whom requested to speak on the condition of anonymity due to fear of professional reprisal. “A trip like this could have been a lot more useful if it was done three or four months earlier, so there was time for [Jackson] to do something with our feedback,” said another senior official at a different mission. “At this point, we’re closing up, and there’s not really a whole lot of back-and-forth on what we can do.” “They’re starting to ask questions, but they’re starting too late. And now, we’re all on our way out,” the official added. It’s not clear why these particular countries were chosen — especially given the different contexts each of the missions is facing. Kazakhstan, for example, is in a region that was recently targeted in the Trump administration’s $9 billion rescissions package; the Philippines is seen as a strategically important country to the United States — and just received $60 million in new foreign aid. While there is no USAID mission in Belgium, those familiar with Jackson’s trip assumed that the stop was related to the government’s stockpile of contraceptives at a Belgian warehouse, all of which have been slated for incineration at a facility in France. At some missions, the team toured programs. At others, they had meetings with the few staff still standing. Over the last few months, the vast majority of USAID employees have been subject to a mass reduction-in-force, while nearly 85% of USAID’s programs have been canceled. Most mission directors are leaving their posts, and thousands of terminated programs have been transferred to a “legacy organization” for closure. While the vast majority of USAID’s functions were transferred to the State Department last month, this legacy organization will focus solely on winding down contracts, grants, and agreements across the world, according to an internal document obtained by Devex in June. That document states the legacy organization will be a hollowed-out version of USAID, functioning out of Washington, D.C., with “limited staffing to meet statutory requirements,” which could include positions such as a human resource director, chief financial officers, an acquisitions director, and an operations director. The process to “close out and retire all remaining USAID assets and liabilities” is expected to take two years, the document states, and cost the U.S. government an estimated $6.4 billion. “Our team pointed out that hiring more staff in Washington versus the local staff here, or around the world, is going to be a lot more expensive,” said the second senior official, noting that most of their team has been terminated. The official also pointed out that with contract closeouts being centered in Washington, D.C., it will be difficult to verify whether equipment, property, or other commodities associated with canceled USAID programs have actually been disposed of. “Our team did offer some recommendations, and [Jackson’s] team kind of bristled at them, like they didn’t appreciate any recommendations of things we can do better at this point,” they added. Throughout the trip, it seems like that was the work Jackson was focused on, the officials told Devex — and that for questions on anything future-related, staff were directed to speak to the State Department. “It did not leave me with a feeling of, ‘Hey, you guys are really competent, and you got this, you’re just in a messy phase,’” the first official told Devex. “Instead, I got [the feeling of] they really have no idea what they’re doing.”