At the Inspector General community’s 24th annual awards ceremony, the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) named four teams from our office among this year’s recipients. We congratulate each team on their accomplishments and salute the hard work of OIG staff worldwide to help safeguard and strengthen U.S. foreign assistance.
This year’s USAID OIG CIGIE award recipients included our:
USAID OIG COVID-19 Oversight Task Team (Award for Excellence)
In recognition of outstanding contributions made to improve preparedness and operational effectiveness of USAID’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The swift, coordinated efforts of USAID OIG’s Task Team working on COVID-19 oversight issues helped drive early Agency COVID-19 risk mitigation efforts, promote transparency around USAID’s response, and set critical oversight activities in motion, reinforcing the efficiency, effectiveness, and integrity of the largest scale, most complex international public health response effort of our times.
Private Sector Engagement Audit Team (Award for Excellence)
In recognition of outstanding achievements in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of USAID operations by optimizing the way USAID works with the private sector. USAID OIG’s audit of the Agency’s engagement with the private sector has helped transform the way USAID manages its activities globally. When USAID engages the private sector, it has the potential to catalyze greater investments, multiply efficiencies, and magnify impact. This audit has assisted the Agency in overhauling its policies, procedures, systems, tools, guidance, and data to harness billions in private funds.
Ventilator Theft and Recovery Team (Award for Excellence)
In recognition of exceptional performance in aggressively investigating and successfully recovering 191 USAID-funded ventilators that were stolen while en route to El Salvador to help treat victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. By building an interagency team and using creative investigative techniques, USAID OIG, FBI, DOJ, and local authorities successfully recovered $3 million worth of stolen ventilators, prosecuted three individuals, and salvaged the integrity of a USAID COVID-19 program. The successful recovery of the ventilators helped support the credibility of a significant program to save the lives of thousands in need.
Lead Inspector General Overseas Contingency Operations Quarterly Report and Oversight Planning Teams (Barry R. Snyder Award)
In recognition of distinguished achievement by subject matter experts from multiple disciplines within the OIGs of the Department of Defense, Department of State, and U.S. Agency for International Development for joint oversight of five designated OCOs through the congressionally mandated Lead IG framework during a world-wide pandemic and evolving missions in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
For the complete list of awardees across the Inspector General community, please see the awards ceremony program, available on CIGIE’s events page.
For more information about CIGIE, or the role of inspectors general in promoting efficiency and effectiveness and addressing fraud, waste, and abuse, visit the Council’s main page at ignet.gov.