Vitter's View: Fighting Corruption in International Aid

Statement

Vitter's View: Fighting Corruption in International Aid

This month in the U.S. Senate we debated a Global AIDS funding bill called PEPFAR - it's short for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The first PEPFAR bill was passed early in President Bush's term, and it allotted $15 billion to fight the AIDS virus in underfunded regions throughout the world. This month's bill had a price tag of $50 billion with much of this money going to a fund with a horrible record of waste and abuse.

We, as Americans, are incredibly generous in our donations and service to others here at home and around the world. But nothing irks us more than seeing our hard-earned tax dollars, donations and time commitments squandered by corrupt folks abusing the system - benefiting off the backs of those unfortunate people we are trying to help with our time and money. So I fought for and added an amendment to this bill to add more transparency to the aid we provide and withhold 20 percent of funding to the Global Fund until it sets up a procedure to allow inspectors general greater access to the documents and information they need.

But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this expanded PEPFAR bill is that it would not prohibit funding from getting into the hands of countries like China to continue their horrific practice of coercive abortions. At least two large Global Fund grants in 2004 and 2006, totaling more than $70 million, were given to various Chinese agencies including the National Population and Planning Commission, the organization tasked with implementing China's "one-child-per-family" policy. To allow our tax dollars to support this commission while we are debating a bill targeted to save lives in Africa sends a confused and disappointing message to say the least.

I tried to prevent our money from going to these types of activities by supporting an amendment that would have prohibited American tax dollars from going to organizations that provide or support forced abortions in China. But because this amendment failed and because this bill diverts the focus from treating AIDS to a much broader mission to the point where it is almost trying to provide almost a global healthcare plan, I voted against it.

From fraud and abuse at the Global Fund for AIDS to corruption in the United Nations Oil for Food program, international organizations peddling U.S. dollars for their own influence and gain must not be tolerated. I will continue to fight for tough reforms to America's foreign aid programs and to bring attention to poorly crafted bills, like this one, so that we can keep tabs on our tax dollars.

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