BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 18. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan has rolled up its sleeves and formed a working group to take a hard look at USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) projects, aiming to assess their alignment with stated goals, the effectiveness of fund utilization, and potential conflicts of interest, TurkicWorld reports.
This is stated in the official response from Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin to a parliamentary inquiry regarding the verification of USAID projects.
According to the document, the review will involve analyzing USAID's country strategies and its relationships with governmental and non-governmental entities.
The audit request for USAID projects came from deputies of the ruling AMANAT party and the People's Party of Kazakhstan. They demanded transparency regarding the recipients of foreign funds and their usage, emphasizing public interest in the issue.
The working group that has been created will analyze financial flows to identify potential cover-up schemes, discrepancies in fund usage, and conflicts of interest.
In Zhumangarin’s response to the parliamentary inquiry, it is stated that, according to information from the U.S. State Department provided to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, USAID had 28 long-term programs in Kazakhstan in 2024. Overall, in 2023-2024, USAID allocated $26.5 million to projects in the country.
Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, during a national kurultai (assembly) meeting, noted that international organizations, under the guise of democratic values, had intervened in the internal affairs of countries, and their activities were often accompanied by financial abuses.
He expressed support for the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump’s policy to combat the “deep state” and protect traditional values.
USAID was established in 1961 during President John F. Kennedy’s administration. After returning to the White House, Trump criticized the agency for corruption and misuse of funds, sharply criticizing it and immediately calling for its closure.
