For months, Peter Marocco has been the steering force behind the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. As the head of the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance — and then, as the deputy administrator of USAID — Marocco oversaw the gutting of thousands of awards and the firing of nearly all the agency’s 10,000 staff.
But now, Marocco has left the State Department — and it’s unclear exactly why.
“Pete was brought to State with a big mission — to conduct an exhaustive review of every dollar spent on foreign assistance. He conducted that historic task and exposed egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars,” a senior administration official at the State Department told Devex on Monday. “We all expect big things are in store for Pete on his next mission.”