Bulk of Haiti earthquake aid went to U.S. firms, organizations

[malaise]

http://www.caricomnewsnetwork.com/2013/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2141:bulk-of-haiti-earthquake-aid-went-to-u-s-firms-organizations&catid=132:latin-america456202711&Itemid=587
<snip>
A new report on American aid to Haiti in the wake of that country’s devastating earthquake finds most of the money went to U.S.-based companies and organizations. The Center for Economic and Policy Research analyzed the US$1.15 billion pledged after the January 2010 quake and found that the “vast majority” of the money it could follow went straight to U.S. companies or organizations, more than half in the Washington area alone.

Just 1 percent went directly to Haitian companies.

The report’s authors said that a lack of transparency makes it hard to track all the money. “It is possible to track who the primary recipients of USAID funds are, yet on what are these NGOs and contractors spending the money?” authors Jake Johnston and Alexander Main wrote. “What percent goes to overhead, to staff, vehicles, housing, etc.? What percent has actually been spent on the ground in Haiti?”

USAID did not respond to requests to comment on the report Friday.
The group has been a critic of U.S. foreign policy in the past, accusing the U.S. of a top-down approach to aid that does little to alleviate poverty in impoverished Haiti.

The report also finds that the biggest recipient of U.S. aid after the earthquake was Chemonics International Inc., a for-profit international development company based in Washington, D.C., that has more than 4,800 employees.

Aside from the World Bank and United Nations, Chemonics is the single largest recipient of USAID funds worldwide, having received more than US$680 million in fiscal year 2012 alone.
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Ah well

[PDJane]

1. Yes, of course.

The aid money is used to balance the balance of trade payments. It's not altruism.

[malaise]

3. OK then

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/haiti/121004/USAID-contractor-chemonics-audit

[Mika]

2. Disaster capitalism.

[malaise]

4. Ding ding

We have a winner

[Mika]

5. Yet, so many think that the USA helps the whole freakin world.

They're off mark, the USA helps corporate control of the whole freakin world.

[malaise]

6. Bushco privatized USAID - it's now trickle down

From the article at link
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/haiti/121004/USAID-contractor-chemonics-audit?page=0,1

It isn't the first time USAID has reacted to mistakes by Chemonics by sending even more contracts its way. A 2005 audit found the company's $153 million program to improve agriculture in Afghanistan had missed an important objective that resulted in the “limited” success of the project. Nonetheless, one year later, USAID awarded Chemonics a new $102 million contract for similar work in Afghanistan. A later investigation found even that project was flawed, running so far behind schedule that Afghan farmers on 10,000 hectares of land were unable to plant their crops one summer.

Critics of USAID spending say the mistakes Chemonics made in Haiti and Afghanistan are emblematic of those that occur frequently across the development aid world as aid contracts increasingly shift away from NGOs to for-profit companies. Foreign Policy reported in July that in 2011, 27 percent of USAID funds worldwide went to American companies like Chemonics.

“These companies operate for profit. They're not your mom and pop's NGO or aid group,” said Jake Johnston, who analyses US aid to Haiti for the CEPR. “They have high overheads, they take off money off the top, they pay high salaries for their staff.”

Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in 2009 that USAID has “turned into more of a contracting agency than an operational agency with the ability to deliver.”

The result is that many Haitian organizations and businesses are left hoping that some of the funding trickles down to them. They are often disappointed.