White House fires USAID inspector general after warning about funding oversight, officials say
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/n...s-say/3842433/
The White House fired the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday, U.S. officials said, a day after his office warned that the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian funds.
The White House gave no reason for the firing of Inspector General Paul Martin, one of the officials said. The officials were familiar with the dismissal but not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Inspectors general are typically independently funded watchdogs attached to government agencies and tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. The Trump administration earlier purged more than a dozen inspectors general.
On Monday, Martin's office issued a flash report warning that the Trump administration's freeze on all foreign assistance and moves to cut USAID staff had left oversight of the humanitarian aid “largely nonoperational."