By Kolawole Ojebisi
A United States Congressman, Scott Perry, has thrown his weight behind US President Donald Trump’s planned closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) structures globally.
The lawmaker alleged that that US aid agency, funded terrorist organisations, including Boko Haram. Perry, a Republican representing Pennsylvania, made the claim during the inaugural hearing of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency on Thursday.
At the session, titled “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud,” which focused on alleged misappropriations of taxpayer funds, the lawmaker declared thus:
“Who gets some of that money? Does that name ring a bell to anybody in the room? Because your money, your money, $697 million annually, plus the shipments of cash funds in Madrasas, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS Khorasan, terrorist training camps. That’s what it’s funding.”
According to the subcommittee’s website, it will “actively work with President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency to root out waste, shore up vulnerable payment systems, and fully investigate schemes to defraud taxpayers.”
Perry further cited USAID’s reported funding of $136 million for building 120 schools in Pakistan, alleging that there was “zero evidence” of the schools’ construction.
Justifying his stance on the vexed matter Perry added, ” If you think that the programme under Operation Enduring Sentinel entitled Women’s Scholarship Endowment, which receives $60 million annually, or the Young Women Lead, which gets about $5 million annually, is going to women who, by the way, if you read the Inspector General’s report, is telling you that the Taliban does not allow women to speak in public, yet somehow you’re believing, and American people are supposed to believe, that this money is going for the betterment of the women in Afghanistan. It is not.
“You are funding terrorism, and it’s coming through USAID. And it’s not just Afghanistan, because Pakistan’s right next door.
“USAID spent $840 million in the last year, the last 20 years, on Pakistan’s education-related programme. It includes $136 million to build 120 schools, of which there is zero evidence that any of them were built. Why would there be any evidence? The Inspector General can’t get in to see them.
“But you know what? We doubled down and spent $20 million from USAID to create educational television programs for children unable to attend the physical school. Yeah, they can’t attend it, because it doesn’t exist. You paid for it.
“Somebody else got the money. You are paying for terrorism. This has got to end.”
Recall that US President Donald Trump had previously called for the closure of USAID, accusing the agency of corruption in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The move is part of Trump’s–and his billionaire ally Elon Musk’s–drive to shrink the US government expenditures.
Musk, whom Trump appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, has also criticised USAID, alleging that it engages in rogue operations.
Musk has called USAID “a viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America” and has vowed to shut it down.
