Dear Tahrir (aka Tom),
On July 10, 2012, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO)
finally released their findings regarding the Department of
State and USAID spending on minorities in the Nineveh Plains
Region of Iraq.
For several years we have reported legislative successes in having
money appropriated for Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and
Syriacs) and other minorities in the Nineveh Plains region of Iraq
by the US Congress. In November of 2010, after the attack on the
Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, allies and advocates of
Assyrians in Congress requested that the GAO conduct an audit of
USAID and the Department of State to find out how the allocated
funds had actually been spent.
So, where has this money actually gone? AANC, in coordination with
the Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project and Congressional Members,
sought to put pressure on USAID and Dept of State to find out:
GAO Findings:
“GAO found that the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID)
could not demonstrate how the projects that
it reported to Congress met the provisions of the 2008 directive
because of three weaknesses. First, USAID documents—specifically,
the list of projects the agency submitted to Congress—linked only
$3.8 million of the $14.8 million in assistance (26 percent)
directly to the Ninewa plain region. Second, USAID documents
generally did not show whether the projects included minority
groups among the beneficiaries of the assistance and specifically
whether $8 million of assistance was provided for internally
displaced families. Third, USAID officials and documents did not
demonstrate that the agency used unobligated prior year Economic
Support Fund (ESF) funds to initiate projects in response to the
2008 directive.
USAID and the Department of State (State) generally
could
demonstrate how they met the 2008 supplemental and 2010
directives. According to USAID and State documents, the agencies
approved $26.9 million in assistance—primarily in essential
services and humanitarian assistance—to meet the 2008 supplemental
and 2010 directives’ provisions to spend up to $10 million for
each directive to assist religious and ethnic minority groups in
Iraq…In addition, as directed by Congress, the U.S. embassy in
Baghdad designated staff at the embassy to oversee and coordinate
assistance to minority groups in 2008.”
So what does this mean to you and me?
AANC is committed to pursuing legislation that helps Assyrians in
Iraq. We now know that USAID and the Department of State did not
do their job in spending Congressionally allocated funds for
minorities in the Nineveh Plains region. This means we will be
calling on you again over the next few months to reach out to your
elected officials to ensure that future spending on Assyrians in
Iraq is
never again misspent. The US military may have left
Iraq, but development is just beginning - keep your voices heard,
and keep Assyrians relevant in Iraq.
See the full report
here.
Many thanks to the Members of Congress who requested this
audit:
House of Representatives:
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith
The Honorable Gary C. Peters
The Honorable Ted Poe
The Honorable Jan Schakowsky
The Honorable Frank R. Wolf
The Honorable Sheldon Whitehouse
The Honorable Gus Bilirakis
The Honorable Dan Burton
The Honorable Dennis Cardoza
The Honorable Anna G. Eshoo
The Honorable Trent Franks
The Honorable Jim Moran
The Honorable Sue Myrick
Senate:
The Honorable Thomas A. Coburn
The Honorable Richard J. Durbin
The Honorable Mark Kirk
.svg.png){kind=small}
