I am a USAID complainant. I have to admit that Musk is right about agency’s waste

I am a doctor who was suddenly fired from Usaid last month after ELON ALMIZCLE fed “USAID in the wooden splinter”. I should be furious about what Musk is doing to my former employer. But I am not; I am a complainant who worked in Usaid for eight years, and Musk has (mostly) correct about USAID dysfunction.

As Usaid’s destination to be reduced and subsumed in the State Department seems to be sealed, once the Congress led by Republicans approves a law To legitimize it, two predictable debate positions have emerged. Musk and Republicans say that “Usaid is a criminal organization” full of “radical left lunatics” that wasted taxpayers’ dollars, while Democrats and Usaid staff say that Usaid does not carry out a vital work to save lives. The truth, as usual, is at some intermediate point, but nobody disputes the criticism regarding waste.

Musk said Usaid color: “It is not an apple with a worm; we really only have a worm ball.” I suggest that USAID is better described as an apple that has been infested by worms. During my eight years in Usaid, I worked with some wonderful colleagues and together we had real impacts, but we were helped too often by a sclerotic bureaucracy and sometimes Malevola. USAID has many good apples, but also many bad that spoil the barrel, as I will detail below. In my opinion, the proportion of good to bad apples is approximately 1: 1, so the decision to shoot 97% of the workforce is too jealous.

How Usaid woke up and destroyed himself

USAID saves babies, but also wasted taxpayers to an unacceptable rate. To borrow another common analogy, it would be fair to say that Usaid is a baby suffering in dirty water that has not been cleaned for decades. USAID Musk review, therefore, is a potentially valuable act of creative destruction. However, Musk’s exaggerations and minimization of Usaid real impacts Suggest that you can go too far, so all those interested should now make sure that this moment is positive, instead of letting the baby be expelled with the water from the bathroom.

Unlike Musk’s statements, USAID undeniably produces valuable results, since his defenders are now trumpeting. For example, their HIV programs have helped save more than 25 million lives Since 2000, 7.8 million babies enabled To be born without HIV to the mothers who live with HIV and, therefore, helped prevent HIV global pandemic. Recent pairs reviewed studies, co-author For me, show that USAID investments have helped countries associated with reducing infant and adult mortality faster than comparable countries. Saving the life of babies helps the United States to make lasting friendships, and development creates markets for US goods, while both are also good things. Humanitarian assistance in places like Ukraine, Gaza, Indonesia and Venezuela personify the soft power of the United States.

Less known examples of the USAID value abound, illustrated well by the USAID association with a private base for Restore the Gorongosa National Park In Mozambique, decimated by the civil war in the 1980s, which is now thriving and was used as the basis for the humanitarian response of Usaid in 2019 to Cyclone Idai. On the basis of the Gorongous model, in response to the 2018 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, my colleagues and I built $ 165 million program in twelve countries Take advantage of USAID funds with a coincidental investment to reduce pressure on biodiverse ecosystems to protect wildlife and also reduce the risk of emerging diseases, while benefiting local people. All those programs are now slow and possibly dying, and that is serious concern.

USAID has “demonstrated an obstructionism pattern,” says the main dux the Republican in a letter to Rubio

That said, all those who work in USAID know about terrible waste and occasional malevolence that occurs within the industrial aid complex. The musk and the White House have been highlighting the examples ofi, as promotion of non -binary gender language by journalists in Sri LankaBut there is a myriad of others. The global health supply chain contract of one billion dollars, which offers HIV medications, was tidy To pay $ 3.1 million to resolve corruption accusations, however, somehow their next generation contracts have been as problematic as before. Many Beltway Bandit recipients charge an absurd average 30% overload, but too often informs meaningful results, such as the number of people trained.

My story, through which I became a reluctant complainant (case of the Merit System Protection Board DC-1221-23-0102-W-1), it personifies what Musk must correctly eliminate the agency. When I became the deputy director of the Interim Cabinet of the Global Health Office in 2020, I immediately observed the incompetence of the professional bureaucrats as they moved too slowly to advance in a section of funds of $ 34.5 million to fight COVID-19 . After fixing this and other cases of their bad management, instead of thanking me for cleaning their disaster, the bureaucrats retaliate against me when walking slowly and then blocking a promotion for me and trying (but failing) to say goodbye.

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In 2021, emboldened for their successful reprisal against me, again incompetently hundreds of millions of dollars of Covid funds, and were caught in April when the Delta wave exploded in India. For weeks, they rushed to send supplies inefficient there only after the case wave had reached its maximum point. All those involved in Usaid were embarrassed and annoying for their inefficiency, which was mainly the fault of the few bureaucrats who retaliated against me. Distracted by southern Asia, Usaid could not send any help to Latin America until long after the 2021 mortal waves had passed there, with Tens of thousands of confirmed deaths, Out of a small unique installment to Colombia. For example, USAID financing was sent so late to Peru to fight his wave Lambda Covid-19 that financing was finally returned to Washington, since the wave of around 30,000 deaths confirmed that they had been completely lost. Although I sent this data to the auditors of the Government’s Responsibility Office, its 2023 audit I usually call the USAID’s negative leadership behaviors.

One of the main villains of my story was degraded by the administrator of Usaid, Samantha Power, after Mismanagement of COVID-19 In 2021, but then received the work of plum from the director of the USAID mission in Cambodia. Another villain left USAID for a leadership position in the CDC, only after demanding Usaid under the denaclient protection law. Throughout my three -year legal battle, Usaid’s lawyers used despicable tactics, activated For our ineffective denaclient protection system, but finally established with me in 2024. This type of embezzlement must be purged not only of USAID, but of the entire government of the United States. When I was a soldier of the Active Service Army, the waste I observed in the Defense Department It was not better or worse.

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Despite these true realities, to paraphrase General Jim Mattis, if Usaid did not exist, we would have to create it. USAID helped win the Cold War and has helped the world be healthier, safer and more prosperous. But Usaid can and should be much more than it has been, and personifies how inexplicable bureaucrats can abuse their power by not fulfilling their duty and fulfilling US and global interests.

Yes musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio Eliminate the hundreds or thousands of bad employees of USAID, so many deserving groups will be better, including US taxpayers, help beneficiaries and good employees within the USAID. Economic history shows that creative destruction is usually positive, however painful it is for those who cannot compete. But as Usaid goes through this metamorphosis, we should not throw the baby with the miserable bath water.