Report: USAID Probed for Alleged Bid-Rigging
January 24, 2013
Investigators are looking into allegations that the top lawyer for the State Department's aid agency rigged a bid and that top officials tried to cover it up, according to The Associated Press.
The AP reported Thursday that the Justice Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development's inspector general are investigating whether USAID general counsel Lisa Gomer interfered last year to guarantee that a now-canceled bid for a “senior government-to-government assistance adviser” would be won by the agency's retiring chief financial officer, David Ostermeyer. Investigators with the IG's office are also probing whether Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg tried to interfere with the internal investigation, the AP reported — possibly at the behest of USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah.