USAID inspector general fired
Dismissal follows warning about funding oversight
The White House fired the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday, a U.S. official said.
It comes a day after the watchdog’s office warned that the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in humanitarian funds.
The official, who had direct knowledge of the firing, was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The White House gave no reason for the firing, the official said. The dismissal was first reported by CNN.
The Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development is stiffing American businesses on hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid bills for work that has already been done, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The administration’s abrupt freeze on foreign aid also is forcing mass layoffs by U.S. suppliers and contractors for USAID, including 750 furloughs at one company, Washington-based Chemonics International, the lawsuit says.
“One cannot overstate the impact of that unlawful course of conduct: on businesses large and small forced to shut down their programs and let employees go; on hungry children across the globe who will go without; on populations around the world facing deadly disease; and on our constitutional order,” the U.S. businesses and organizations said.
An organization representing 170 small U.S. businesses, major suppliers, an American Jewish group aiding displaced people abroad, the American Bar Association and others joined the court challenge.
It was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington against President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting USAID Deputy Administrator Peter Marocco, a Trump appointee who has been a central figure in hollowing out the agency, and Russell Vought, Trump’s head of the Office of Management and Budget.