A U.S. congressional representative is demanding that USAID explain what it is doing to address shortcomings in its largest-ever project, a $9.5 billion effort to improve global health supply chains in lower-income countries.
In a written question to USAID Assistant Administrator Atul Gawande, who leads the agency’s Bureau for Global Health, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks pointed to a recent investigation by Devex and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, or TBIJ, which uncovered significant challenges in the USAID project.
“Their story showed evidence of fraud, waste, and abuse, and that USAID and the Washington DC consultant managing this project jointly manipulated performance indicators,” Miller-Meeks wrote in a question submitted for the record Wednesday, following a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing last month that focused on reforming the World Health Organization. Miller-Meeks is a Republican representing Iowa.