President Trump’s White House fired the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday, a day after the watchdog office issued a report that was critical of the foreign assistance freeze, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to The Hill.
USAID’s Inspector General Paul Martin was reportedly fired around 6 p.m. local time. No reason was given for his termination, the source added.
Martin’s office published a 6-page report on Monday outlining how the recent State Department’s pause on foreign assistance programs and cutting down the USAID’s staff created “risks and challenges to the safeguarding and distribution of USAID’s $8.2 billion in obligated but undisbursed humanitarian assistance.”
“Specifically, USAID’s existing oversight controls—albeit with previously identified shortcomings—are now largely nonoperational given these recent directives and personnel actions,” the office wrote in the report.
Under the law, the administration is required to give 30-day notice to Congress prior to terminating an inspector general and give reasons why.
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