U.S. to Investigate Aid Workers
Ratcheting up U.S. scrutiny of foreign aid workers, the Bush administration is about to require charitable and nonprofit organizations that receive money from a government agency to provide detailed personal information on thousands of key employees.
The controversial program, which is to take effect in four days, would require the organizations that receive money from the U.S. Agency for International Development to provide social security numbers, birth dates and e-mail addresses for workers, according to the Washington Post. Meanwhile, some complain, there is no statutory basis for the program, and its decisions will be made secretly without any clear avenue of redress for those affected by mistakes.
“We don’t know who will do the vetting, what the standards are and whether we could answer any allegation,” says one unnamed executive of a major nongovernmental organization on which the new requirements would be imposed.
