Report: USAID Probed For Alleged Bid-Rigging

Criminal 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 are also probing whether Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg tried to shut down the internal investigation — possibly at the behest of USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah.

“One document said Steinberg told inspector general officials that the agency's top administrator, Shah, asked him to speak with the internal investigators about the review,” the AP reported. “Steinberg, according to another inspector general document, ripped into the independent watchdog.” 
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