USAID Steers No-Bid Haiti Contract to ‘Politically Connected’ Firm of Bill Clinton Friend

James Rosen
FOX News
February 16, 2010

The U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded another lucrative no-bid contract, Fox News has learned — this time to a “politically connected” lobbyist and high-profile friend of former President Bill Clinton.

[efoods]This marks the second no-bid contract the agency has been found to have awarded since the start of the year, despite a long history of vows by President Obama to crack down on the practice. The first, awarded on Jan. 4 and worth nearly $25 million, was steered to a firm owned by a donor to the Obama presidential campaign, for legal work in Afghanistan. The cancellation of that contract was announced by the State Department shortly after Fox News reported its existence on Jan. 25.

USAID’s latest no-bid contract, worth close to $100,000, was awarded on Jan. 18 to the GlobalOptions Group for work in earthquake-stricken Haiti, where Clinton is the U.N. special envoy and is helping to lead private fundraising efforts.

Described as an “integrated risk management” firm, GlobalOptions is headquartered in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Plaza and boasts 10 offices across the U.S. The GlobalOptions subsidiary that executed the contract is James Lee Witt Associates (JLWA), the “emergency preparedness and management” consulting firm founded by the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under President Clinton.

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This article was posted: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 8:57 pm

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