U.S. impeded in democracy efforts for Egypt
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-10-28-aid_N.htm
 

WASHINGTON — More than $180 million in U.S. foreign aid to promote democracy in Egypt over the past four years has produced few measurable results, in part because the Egyptian government has stymied the effort, a newly released government audit says.

The "impact of (American-funded) democracy and governance programs was unnoticeable" in Egypt, said the report by the U.S. Agency for International Development's inspector general. USAID auditors based their conclusions on international indexes of press freedom, corruption, civil liberties and political rights.

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Egypt is the second-largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel, having garnered $69 billion in military and economic assistance since 1948, according to the Congressional Research Service. President Hosni Mubarak has ruled the country under a "state of emergency" since Anwar Sadat was assassinated by extremists in 1981. U.S. administrations have walked a line between pressuring Mubarak to implement political reforms and supporting his steps against al-Qaeda-linked groups.

In 2004, the George W. Bush administration nearly doubled annual funding for democracy promotion in Egypt, the audit shows, from $24 million to $45 million. The report says, however, that "a major contributing factor to the limited achievements for some of these programs (was) a lack of support from the Government of Egypt." For example, the audit says, the government canceled, without explanation, a training program on anti-corruption and political reform.

And after USAID spent $618,000 to train 2,100 poll watchers in 2007 local elections, most were denied access to the polling places.

The audit also cites missteps by USAID grant recipients fueled by poor agency management. One grantee, it says, got $1.2 million to provide civic training to 600 teachers and 30,000 students, but actually trained only 330 teachers and about 2,000 students, less than 8% of the target.

Another grantee received $950,000 to publish a children's book on civic education but could not verify that any schoolchildren actually received the book, the audit says.

In a written response, USAID managers agreed with most of the audit recommendations and pledged to implement them.