The U.S. State Department’s takeover of aid programs from the shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was hindered by staffing shortages, IT issues, and delayed guidance, according to an internal watchdog report.

Background

President Donald Trump ordered the closure of USAID in January 2025, resulting in the firing of over 10,000 people and the cancellation of thousands of programs. The State Department was left to manage the remaining aid projects, which carried $51.5 billion in obligated funds.

The Office of Inspector General found that about a third of the State Department offices that took on USAID awards had no prior experience managing foreign assistance projects. The department hired 838 new positions to administer the awards, but this was far fewer than bureaus requested.

Guidance on how to update the terms of aid awards was not fully in place until December, and an artificial intelligence-driven data management tool introduced to help with the transition was beset by data problems.

Impact

The continent with the largest number of different awards transferred to the State Department was Africa, with 639 awards carrying $17 billion of obligated funds. The Bureau of African Affairs, which took on a majority of those awards, requested 732 new positions to administer the awards but ultimately only hired 232 people.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.