USAID Bans U.S. Companies from Competition in Mexican Program

The Obama administration intends to keep contractors on stand-by to help officials evaluate conditions on the Mexican side of the U.S. border, but U.S. companies are not allowed to apply for the work. Tracking remittances – funds sent over a distance – from the U.S. to Mexico is one of several possible research and consulting services that Obama through the U.S. Agency for International Development may solicit. Such a task will not support, for example, tax- or drug-enforcement operations. Instead, it would help determine the extent to which the funds subsequently are “invested into social or community development projects” in Mexico, according to a Request for Quotations that that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor discovered via routine database research. Only Mexican organizations – or, at the very least, groups based in Mexico that are majority owned or managed by Mexican citizens – may submit responses to the solicitation, the Scope of Work emphasizes.

Read more at US Trade & Aid Monitor