On Saturday, The New York Post posted an article about the misuse of American taxpayer dollars under the banner of USAID.

The article reports:

DOGE wants to see where our tax dollars go, and we should let them. No surprise that the “government industrial complex” will resist every effort to bring transparency and accountability to how those funds are spent when the system is ripe with problems.

I’ve had first-hand experience with USAID and other international aid organizations, such as the World Bank, UNESCO, and even the Red Cross, during my 40-plus trips to Haiti after being invited by then Haitian President René Préval to help rebuild the nation following the devastating 2010 earthquake.

And I’ve seen how USAID, along with other NGOs, delivered on very few of their promises, failed to coordinate relief activities, and even skimmed money off the top.

…What happened in Haiti captures, at the very least, the incompetence — if not the outright corruption — of these international relief organizations. There is probably no more corrupt government agency than USAID.

Since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti killed as many as 300,000 people, the US government has disbursed around $4.4 billion in foreign assistance to the small island nation.

At least $1.5 billion was disbursed for immediate humanitarian aid, while another $3 billion went to recovery, reconstruction and development.

Of the at least $2.13 billion in contracts and grants for Haiti-related work, less than $50 million, or 2% went to Haitian organizations or firms. By comparison, $1.3 billion, or 56%, has gone to firms located in or near the US capitol. Little wonder USAID is so threatened by the sudden scrutiny.

The article concludes:

Money is lost when charities give funds to other organizations to implement the work they had promised. For example, the Red Cross set aside some of the original Haiti funds for their own administrative fees. Then, the charities they hired took a cut of their subsequent administrative fees.

Finally, the Red Cross had yet another charge which they described as “program costs incurred in managing third-party projects,” or an oversight fee.

Ultimately, this lack of transparency allows for ineffective and misleading uses of large donations that might otherwise have the potential to make an important impact in long-term relief.

The lack of information required by these organizations also complicates further analysis of this distribution of money and its long-term success.

The US provided $72 billion in aid to 180 countries in 2023, with USAID serving as its lead agency. DOGE attention to USAID is much deserved and long overdue as American goodwill and generosity have been repeatedly squandered.

The Haitian experience is the best case study of the failures of the American foreign aid program’s lack of transparency and accountability.

Governmental agencies such as USAID and their NGO partners and collaborators act as if they are sovereign nations — accountable to no one.

I don’t mind helping countries in need. I do mind lining the pockets of people who run charities where very little of the collected money actually goes where it needs to go.