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Discovering a Massive bribery scandal At the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Small Business Administration (SBA) is ordering a comprehensive review of all government contracting officials who have exercised the awarding agency under the agency’s business development plan over the past 15 years.
SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler said in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital USAID fraud It is a “complete reflection of the whole body failure of supervision and accountability.” She further said that fraud is “not an isolated incident.”
In response, Loeffler directed Tre Pennie, deputy chief executive who oversees the government contract awarded by the SBA, to “decisively” combat any potential similar abuse in the agency.
Loeffler directed Pennie to immediately conduct a full review of the agency’s awarded officials, back to 2010.
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Left: Then, RT-GA. Senator Kelly Loeffler spoke at a heavy-duty campaign rally in Marietta, Georgia on Monday, March 9, 2020. (AP Photos/John Bazmore and Reuters/Annabelle Gordon)
“The role of the federal contracting officials is not etiquette or self-transaction; it is a position of great authority and fiduciary responsibility,” Loeffler said. “The contracting process must be transparent and based on strengths rather than personal interests.”
This is after the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), an agency responsible for managing civil assistance Demolition by the Governor Waste, fraud and abuse cuts under Presidents Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. The move was met by mass protests by Democrats, who claimed that cutting U.S.A.I.D. would put recipients around the world in trouble.
Despite claiming how outstanding the agency has done, it has recently been discovered that Roderick Watson, an influential contracting officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development, was able to execute a massive long-term bribery program, dating back to 2013.
Watson, 57 years old, Enfession The Ministry of Justice press release said it would “bribe public officials.”
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Protesters held a meeting with members of Congress at Pete Marocco, deputy administrator of the United States International Development Agency (USAID), to discuss foreign aid, and held a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and the United States International Development Agency (USAID) held a placard. (Reuters/Kent Nissi Village)
according to Go to the Ministry of JusticeWatson started selling his influence since 2013, with Vistant owner Walter Barnes and Applyl owner Darryl Britt raising proceeds through subcontractor Paul Young to hide their tracks.
Britt and Barnes “regularly hold bribes to Watson, including cash, laptops, thousands of dollars in tickets, suites in NBA games, country club weddings, and drops on two residential mortgages, cellular phones, cellular phones and relatives’ jobs invoices.”
The statement said Watson received the bribe “as part of the program, worth more than $1 million.”
As part of the joint venture, Vistant was awarded in November 2023, a contract worth up to $800 million, with one of the focus of the contract being to address “various issues affecting the root causes of irregular immigration from Central America to the United States”, which is the president’s problem, and it’s a problem. Joe Biden At the time Vice President Kamala Harris was president.
Workers delete the headquarters of the U.S. International Development Agency in Washington, DC on February 7, 2025 (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
The contract was cancelled a few days later after the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which said it was excluded from government contracts because of “there is evidence of lack of evidence of business honesty or integrity.
The joint venture then successfully sued the government for being included in the exclusion list and re-granted the contract and paid $10,000 in August 2024.
Loeffler said in the letter that the U.S. Agency for International Development scandal “represents the collapse of safeguards that should protect the U.S. taxpayer dollar and ensure fair access rights to legal small businesses.”
Although the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) marked it as a lack of “honestness and integrity”, she slammed the Biden administration for awarding the $800 million contract to Vistant.
“The fact that federal officials are able to act as key figures in ongoing mass fraud operations suggests failures in internal controls and collapses that need immediate correction in the contracting environment,” Loeffler said.
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Small Business Management Building (U.S. Government Accountability Office)
She said the SBA plays a “key role” in the federal signing and “will no longer suffer taxpayers and small businesses that deserve it at the expense of abuse.”
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Lofler said the agency’s audit will begin with high-priced and limited competition contracts in the SBA 8(a) business development plan. The findings will be referred to the U.S. Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Department of Justice.
Any official or business found to violate SBA ethics standards or commitments Improper criminal behavior Loeffler said it would be handed over to the appropriate authorities and the SBA would assist the Department of Justice to recover the stolen funds.
“We won’t let the public trust be quietly eroded by backdoor transactions and uncontrolled discretion,” Loeffler said.
“We should attribute it to small businesses in the United States to correctly address this,” she continued. “Your office has the power to act decisively and it is the task now.”
