Senator Patrick Leahy deserves an Oscar

It’s not often that a U.S. government agency gets caught red-handed abiding by its charter and performing its publicly-avowed and legislatively-approved duties. But last week the AP "broke" a long and breathless story from Havana that nailed the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) for just that.   In their own words, "a secret plan aimed at undermining Cuba’s communist government," was courageously exposed by the AP’s intrepid Havana bureau.

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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.

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