Marco Rubio's Lies About USAID Contractors Refusing to Ship Urgent Medical Supplies As a Form of "Silent Protest"

Logistics Contractors in USAID Supply Chain Not Getting Paid for Work Already Completed, Laying Off Employees and Facing Bankruptcy

At the request of a friend I had a conversation with a USAID subcontractor today, and it was confirmed that Elon, Trump, and Rubio are lying through their teeth This company ships emergency medical supplies around the world on behalf of USAID.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has accused USAID of having an ‘attitude’ not aligned with U.S. national interest (Photo: PBS News)

Even though the Administration said these would be exempt from the "funding freeze" which they implemented without much thought, the prime contractor is unable to get reimbursed for costs and invoices for efforts BEFORE a stop work order was issued on the contract because the draw down the funds as need via a letter of credit with Treasury. That means they cannot pay their subcontractor.

The subcontractor said that if the invoices has been paid, they could have juggled money to stay afloat and keep people on staff until the stop work is resolved. However, without this money THAT THEY ARE LEGALLY ENTITLED TO, they are having to lay off their workforce. And the urgently needed medical supplies cannot be shipped, putting lives at risk.

Yet Rubio has the balls to say these companies are not shipping the supplies as a "form of silent protest" against the Trump administration's actions!

As I discussed with the company, right now they have no legal recourse against the government because as a subcontractor there is no "privity of contract" with the government. They could choose to sue the prime contractor for the money they are owed, but that might drive that company into bankruptcy and they both lose. Meanwhile, interest owed by the Government on the unpaid interest continues to grow under the Prompt Payment Act. I recommend they gather all their documentation, the amount owed, how many they have had to layoff and take this information to their Representative and Senators.

Meanwhile I just read that Trump intends to fire all but 290 of USAID's 10,000 worldwide employees. That means there will not be a warranted contracting office with contracting authority at USAID (Warrants are agency specific) who can lift the Stop Work Order and help get the payment issue worked out. There will be nobody in country to oversea distribution of these materials as they shut the missions down. The government will lose centuries of combined institutional knowledge and the Chinese will step in to fill the gaps. They already funnel millions of dollars to Caribbean nations as the US significantly reduced foreign aid investments there. The Saint Lucian government is playing Taiwan and Chine off against each other for influence in the region, an example of which is Taiwan building a state of the art hospital.

See https://foreignpolicy.com/.../caribbean-st-lucia-taiwan.../ and https://www.govt.lc/.../sod-turning-ceremony-for-st-jude...

All of the Contracting Officers and Contract Specialists will be fired. so there will be no one to deal with the massive number of stop work orders and contract terminations, hanging these contractors (many small businesses and non-profits) out to dry. All of the Contracts will need to be migrated to the State Department and there is no guarantee that the systems are compatible and that data can flow easily. In addition, when will the understaffed State Department procurement staff, who will also be gutted by the "Fork in the Road" and RIFs possibly catch up on this while doing their other work? Ain't gonna happen easily or quickly.

And if any my MAGA conservative friends s in this group dare challenge me on what I have written hear, here is a pro tip: DON'T. DON'T EVEN THINK OF TRYING. (But I still luv ya!)

I recently retired as a Contracting Officer with an unlimited Warrant in the federal Government, which means i could sign contracts for my agency for $1 or $1B dollars. For 26+ years I worked for Major Navy System Commands, USAID, USEPA, and GSA Assisted Acquisition Services. I was part of a tw0-person core team that conducted program performance reviews at field activities of the Naval Sea Systems Command (Warfare Centers, Shipyards, Regional Maintenance Centers that repairs ships and subs). When we uncovered wrong doing/malfeasance, we recommended the stripping and/or seriously reducing the level of their procurement authority (which the Commander NAVSEA did), had military management removed, and revoked warrants from Contracting Officers who did wrong.

Over the last 9 years of my career at GSA, I processed and managed mission critical procurements for the Army, Marine Corps, CDC, USDA, the Air Force Chief of Staff at the Pentagon, the US Army Reserve, the 101st Airborne Division, United States Special Operations Command, and more.

Over my career, I have been called to give affidavits and evidence in procurement fraud cases. Most recently, one of these Contractor's and the Government employee involved were convicted of fraud. I could actually read exact words I gave the investigators. I also vividly recall my conversations with the investigators about how they were barking up the wrong tree on some of the allegations that were actually legal.

I uncovered a scheme where a Congressman directed federal funds to be used to rent, renovate, a building he owned to house a supercomputer for the USEPA, using information technology funds on an information technology support contract to do construction work (illegal activity). A year or so ago I discovered at least $3M in overbilling on a major telecommunications operations and support contract resulting from poor contract formation/management by the Government and "willful ignorance" on the part of the Contractor. I know where fraud, waste, and abuse exists with my agencies and customers, and what the Trump administration is doing now is just plain criminal and inhumane.

With the untargeted across the board staff eliminations, this kind of internal oversight and management goes away, increasing the likelihood of fraud and stealing from the American taxpayer.

I know the system a hell of a lot better than you or or Trump or Rubio Elon and his minions. Elon's minions may be genius and excellent coders, but they do not understand how things operate LEGALLY within the system. Especially when Elon appears to be going after USAID because of an open Inspector General investigation of him and his Ukraine Starlink contracts with USAID, which is a clear contract of interest/ethics violation in the Federal government.

There are plenty of ways Trump and his team could have accomplished their goals legally, but this stuff ain't it.