2025-02-09
Elon Musk's investigation of the USAID payees has been extraordinarily revealing, showing just where the resources have been directed - and apparently not toward the well-being of the average US citizen.
If reports are to be believed, funds have been channelled through UN agencies and NGOs (and elsewhere), making USAID more akin to a slush fund for illegal activities everywhere.
And yet ...
"Most of the money subsidizing these human-trafficking NGOs does not come from USAID, it's from the United Nations"
The UK spent £12.79 billion on the UN's Official Development Assistance scheme in 2022 (including assistance to mitigate the dreaded "Climate Change") excluding other expenditure on items not considered to qualify as ODA assistance (eg: military aid, peacekeeping expenditures, and some cultural programmes that primarily aim to enhance the donor country’s image).
"the top three recipients [of UK bilateral ODA disbursements] in 2022 were Afghanistan (£352mn), Ukraine (£342mn) and Nigeria (£110mn)"
It's a reasonable assumption that we don't know what exactly happened to all this "aid" in any of these countries, especially in the Ukraine, where Mr Zelensky has stated that much of his US aid is unaccounted for. Whether it disappeared before or after arrival is a good question. Unless such payments are audited, it is going to be subject to "disappearance".
It's also reasonable to question how much of the UK's £12.79 billion was also subject to "disappearance"?
I suspect that the UK tax-payer might well have an interest here. Who is responsible (if anybody) for auditing value for money on behalf of the UK taxpayer?
And for reporting back to Parliament?
Well, it's a complex area ...
But are there other shadowy revenue streams that nobody quite knows where the monies end up?
