HAITI: AID THAT ISN’T: Spiegel Online reported in 2012: “Two years ago [former president William Jefferson Clinton] was one of many people who visited Haiti in the aftermath of the quake. George W. Bush went there as did U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. They all visited Haiti and then disappeared again. They are symbolic of the dashed hopes that have come to the nation, where only a fraction of the almost $15 billion donated from the rest of the world has been invested in reconstruction. More than 600,000 Haitians still live in tent cities.” World Socialist Web Site reports today on a GAO report: “Of the $1.14 billion of aid approved by the U.S. Congress in the 2010 Supplemental Appropriations Act, $651 MILLION WAS ALLOCATED TO PROJECTS RUN BY USAID (the United States Agency for International Development). In its audit, GAO takes USAID to task for arrogance and incompetence, noting the lateness of its congressionally-mandated reports and the fact that of all USAID funds spent so far, the cost category with the highest disbursement rate is “Operating and Other Expenses” ─ that is, overhead.… Of the industrial center’s planned port, which has not gotten past the stage of a Feasibility Study, GAO reports that ‘according to USAID officials, USAID has not constructed a port anywhere in the world since the 1970s and USAID does not have a port engineer or port project manager among its direct-hire staff.’ NO EXPLANATION IS OFFERED FOR WHY THE PROJECT WASN’T ASSIGNED TO AN AGENCY WITH MORE EXPERIENCE.spiegel.de/international/world/a-stubborn-savior-is-bill-clinton-haiti-s-hope-for-salvation-a-807377.html
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 19:33:00 +0000
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