USAID Orders All Projects Stopped

Liberia- United States Aid for International Development (USAID) has issued a “stop work order” for all nongovernmental organizations (NGO) funded projects. A USAID memo places immediate pause on new foreign aid spending, and a stop-work order for existing grants and contracts.

Prior to the order, USAID has been funding several projects in Liberia through different NGOs.

The Stop work order is consistent with President Donald Trump’s recent Executive Order (EO) that paused new foreign aid spending, and a stop-work order for existing grants and contracts for Organizations and None Governmental Organization (NGOs) under the USAID Grant portfolio.

New director of the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance sent a global cable Friday, ordering an immediate pause on new foreign aid spending, as well as a stop-work order for existing grants and contracts.

The new guidance intensifies U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order, which placed a 90-day pause on aid spending and could sow “chaos” throughout U.S. aid programs.

 “Effective immediately, Assistant Secretaries and Senior Bureau Officials shall ensure that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, no new obligations shall be made for foreign assistance until such time as the Secretary shall determine, following a review,” reads the memo, which was sent by recent Trump appointee Peter Marocco and seen by Devex.

It further states that “For existing foreign assistance awards, contracting officers and grant officers shall immediately issue stop-work orders, consistent with the terms of the relevant award, until such time as the Secretary shall determine, following a review. Decisions whether to continue, modify, or terminate programs will be made following this review.”

The memo, sent to all diplomatic and consular posts — and known as an ALDAC — adds that no new requests for proposal, requests for application, notices of funding opportunities, or “any other kind of solicitation or request for foreign assistance funding” should be published by the State Department or USAID “until each has been reviewed and approved by OFA consistent with the President’s policy.”

 “No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved by F as consistent with the President Trump’s agenda,” the memo reads.

The U.S. aid community has been waiting anxiously for additional guidance about Trump’s executive order on “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” which was issued Monday, the first day of his second term as president. The guidance issued on Friday struck some experts as a more disruptive and extreme version of what was expected.

“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered,” President Trump Executive order states.

The Executive Order states that United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values. 

 “They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries,” the EO said.

It also indicated “It is the policy of United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”