USAID official and 3 contractors plead guilty to paying bribes to steer more than half a billion dollars in foreign aid contracts

USAID contracting officer Roderick Watson admitted to steering money to multiple companies in exchange for more than $550 million in foreign aid contracts.

The scheme was possible because of the federal government’s racial “set-aside” laws known as 8(a ) contracting, which allow contracting officers to give contracts to companies owned by minorities, women, or veterans without the usual competitive process.

Walter Barnes III , the founder of a Baltimore -area company predicated on taking advantage of those laws, admitted to paying bribes.

Two USAID contracts awarded to Apprio , for $4.4 million and $1.8 million , are listed in spending records as for “education/training-lectures” A $30 million USAID contract to Visant is listed as “for the innovation design and advisory services team to obtain access to specialized buy-in support to a variety of technical design firms through the management of a PMO ’.