A State Department audit found that only 40% of the $110 billion the United States has invested in global HIV/AIDS prevention since 2003 was used for on-the-ground delivery of lifesaving medical supplies, The Washington Free Beacon reported on Thursday.
According to a State Department audit obtained by the outlet, nearly 60% of U.S. funding was consumed by overhead costs, high executive salaries, and, in some cases, programs such as a “Transgender Day of Remembrance” and a “decolonizing development series.”
The State Department announced last week that it will realign its foreign health efforts through a new initiative called the America First Global Health Strategy. Under the plan, multiyear bilateral agreements with recipient countries will tie aid to negotiated terms, which officials say will curb waste and better serve U.S. priorities.
PEPFAR, or the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, had its 2025 budget of $6 billion frozen before ultimately being given $2.9 billion last month.
“The United States’ health foreign assistance programs are inefficient,” the State Department revealed in its documentation. “Data shows that only about 40% of PEPFAR’s budget goes directly to finance on-the-ground service delivery, specifically health commodities and health workers.”
“Of PEPFAR’s $4.7 billion bilateral budget, only approximately $1.0 billion goes to support medical commodity purchases and their related transport and delivery.”
The State Department audit highlighted two PEPFAR implementing partners — RTI International and Chemonics — for using U.S. taxpayer funds to grant executives million-dollar salaries and advance political programming. RTI International received more than $13 billion in 2022 and 2023 from U.S. taxpayers, accounting for 84% of its total revenue.
Chemonics, a for-profit firm with 5,000 employees in 100 countries, has collected $20 billion in taxpayer funding through USAID over the years.
Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the outlet the two companies are perfect examples of government corruption.
“These companies exemplify the moniker ‘beltway bandit,'” Hankinson said. “For years, they have used billions in public funds to export the very worst of America’s woke nonsense, from critical race theory to gender ideology.”
“The only ‘oppressive system’ here is the continued fleecing of the taxpayer for projects that produce nothing of benefit to foreign audiences, let alone the Americans who pay for them,” he added.
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