The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report on reimbursements for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for Ebola virus disease response efforts, particularly how those reimbursements did not comply with legislative requirements and needed to be reversed.
As of Jul. 1 USAID, along with the U.S. Department of State, had obligated approximately 58 percent and disbursed more than one-third of the $2.5 billion allocated for Ebola response activities. In the initial period of the outbreak, the United States obligated $883 million to control the virus’ spread, and the State Department obligated $34 million for medical evacuations. In the following months the United States shifted focus to mitigating second-order impacts. USAID then obligated $251 million to restore health services and $183 million for strengthening disease surveillance.
Of the 271 reimbursements USAID made for obligations incurred prior to the enactment of the Department of State, Foreign Operations and the Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2015, a total of 21 USAID reimbursements were not in accordance with the bill. Those 21 reimbursements were approximately 15 percent of the $401 million that USAID obligated for reimbursements, out of the approximate $1.5 billion that had been obligated since Jul. 1.
The GAO report recommended that USAID reverse reimbursements not made in accordance with the appropriations act and develop written policies and procedures for its reimbursement process.
USAID agreed with the GAO report’s conclusions.