Senior official says Trump-era closure of aid agency led to waste of food meant for 27,000 malnourished children
Officials said the United States plans to incinerate the high-energy biscuits, intended as emergency food for malnourished young children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, after they passed their July expiration date in a warehouse in Dubai.
Under questioning by lawmakers, Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state in charge of management, tied the decision to the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development, which closed its doors on July 1.
f'I think that this was just a casualty of the shutdown of USAID,' Rigas said, adding that he was 'distressed' that the food went to waste.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has slashed more than 80 per cent of US foreign assistance, saying it does not meet core American interests, and put remaining USAID functions under the State Department.
The Atlantic magazine reported Monday that the United States bought the biscuits near the end of Joe Biden's administration for around $800,000 and that US taxpayers will spend another $130,000 to destroy the food.
Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat, said lawmakers had specifically raised the issue of the food with Rubio in March.
'Sometimes the tiniest detail really exposes the soul,' Kaine said.
'A government that is put on notice—here are resources that will save 27,000 starving kids, can you please distribute them or give them to someone who can? 'Who decides, no, we would rather keep the warehouse locked, let the food expire, and then burn it?' Rigas said that the United States remained the world's largest donor and he promised to learn further details about the biscuits.
'I do want to find out what happened here and get to the ground truth,' he said.
Rigas has also supervised hundreds of layoffs at the State Department as part of Trump's sweeping cost-cutting drive first led by tycoon Elon Musk. — AFP
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