WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A U.S. government report says the way millions of dollars earmarked to promote democracy in Cuba was distributed opened the program to fraud and waste.
The Government Accountability Office report said nearly all of the $74 million the U.S. Agency for International Development spent during the past 10 years was distributed without competitive bidding or oversight, the Washington Post said Thursday.
In an extreme case, the GAO said a Miami-based group used government money to buy "a gas chainsaw, computer gaming equipment and software, ... a mountain bike, leather coats, cashmere sweaters, crab meat, and Godiva chocolates."
Reps. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and William Delahunt, D-Mass., co-chairs of the bipartisan Cuba Working Group, said USAID also gave money to Miami-based activists opposed to Cuba's communist government. Delahunt said he planned to call a hearing in January.
USAID disputed unspecified findings in the GAO report and said it would try to improve its oversight.
