US State Dept’s independent watchdog says it is expanding foreign aid oversight

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By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. State Department’s independent watchdog said on Thursday it was expanding its oversight to include new foreign assistance programs the agency has taken over from the U.S. Agency for International Development after it was dismantled by the Trump administration.

The Office of Inspector General for the State Department will now conduct audits into how the agency is managing the many global health-related programs it has taken over from USAID, as well as look into the department’s efforts to provide food aid in Gaza and how the military funding for Ukraine is managed.

As part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s unprecedented push to shrink the federal government, Washington has frozen and then cut back billions of dollars of foreign aid, saying it wants to ensure U.S. taxpayer money goes only to programs that are aligned with Trump’s “America First” policies.

The cutbacks have effectively shut down USAID, leading to the firing of thousands of its employees and contractors. That jeopardized the delivery of life-saving food and medical aid and has thrown global humanitarian relief operations into chaos.

The programs that were not terminated have since then been transferred to the State Department. The OIG said as of July, the implementation of more than 1,000 USAID awards, valued around $75 billion, were now the agency’s responsibility.

As a result, the OIG was scaling up oversight, it said in an X post with a link to a three-page information sheet in which it has laid out key areas of audit.

“In addition to 14 ongoing foreign assistance oversight projects, OIG is planning 25 new foreign assistance-focused audits, inspections, and evaluations,” the OIG said.

Trump and his then advisor and billionaire Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency conducted much of the work to cut down the size of the federal government, fire workers and slash funding repeatedly complaining that the U.S. taxpayer money was misspent and fraud was involved.

Inspectors General assess to make sure taxpayer money is spent efficiently and to detect and prevent waste, fraud and abuse.

Days after taking office in January 20, Trump had fired more than a dozen inspectors general in a late-night purge, a move Democrats said was illegal. The State Department’s IG was among them.

Acting IG Arne Baker has held numerous roles in the office and previously worked at the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The State Department did not immediately provide comment on the expansion of OIG oversight.

GLOBAL HEALTH, UKRAINE

The State Department is now responsible for managing “complex, commercial medical supply chains” to support life-saving aid, the OIG said, adding that about two-thirds of the aid transferred was linked to global health.

“Accordingly, OIG will conduct an audit to determine whether global health supply chain awards, including those transferred from USAID, are achieving desired results,” it added.

Among the new audits, OIG will examine the transition of the implementation of PEPFAR, a global program to fight HIV/AIDS launched in 2003 by then-Republican President George W. Bush, from USAID to the State Department.

It will also evaluate how well the State Department, now also responsible for leading international disaster assistance across the world, has prepared to plan and coordinate such responses globally.

Ukraine is the largest recipient of foreign assistance programs transferred from USAID, OIG said, and therefore it will conduct an audit to assess whether the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv has the capacity to properly administer these awards.

(Reporting by Humeyra PamukEditing by Marguerita Choy)