USAID mulls over responses
USAID says it will respond to seven questions posted with the government agency arising from reports and criticism focusing on the management and execution of its Asean Competitiveness Enhancement Project, known as ACE.
USAID confirmed yesterday that it will reply to the original seven questions, posted by TTR Weekly, 15 January, “when they have been reviewed and approved.”
Two additional questions were filed with the agency over the last week and the agency confirmed they had been circulated for response and review.
The US$4 million ACE project, spanning 2008 to 2013, is under the US Agency for International Development and is being managed by a US consultancy firm Nathan Associates Inc with RJ Gurley as project director.
It aims to enhance the competitiveness of Asean tourism through the creation of new branding campaign and new consumer website SoutheastAsia.Org.
Supported by the tourism ministers of the 10-member countries of Asean, who signed off on the project at the Asean Tourism Forum in January, the website and accompanying marketing promotions are due to be officially launched at the ITB in Berlin next month.
However, critics voiced their concern on the TTR Weekly website saying they fear US tax payers’ money would give a commercial competitor a market advantage.
One of the critics, who owns an online travel booking system in Asean, commented on www.ttrweekly.com: “As an e-commerce business we can’t compete against this sort of funding and it loses us business. It is very unfair practice from USAID, if true. Why are they interfering in commercial fields? For the past four years we’ve been developing e-business for small businesses in the East Asia market. The comments made so far should be of great concern to the US government and US taxpayers. Will USAID be conducting a full investigation into the procedures and have USAID rules and regulations been met?”
That is has taken USAID three weeks to consider responding to perfectly valid questions shows a moribund organisation not in tune with the needs of its stakeholders. Did anyone actually ask Asean if they wanted a boatload of foreign “consultants” to opine on tourism initiatives in the region? Why didn’t Asean’s tourism ministers know it was not going to cost them a penny? ACE is a faceless organisation. Did anyone do any due diligence on Nathan Associates? Who are they? What is their track record? Just because Asean isn’t paying for this dubious pleasure, surely members are still entitled to know exactly who is behind this generosity, and what they are gaining apart from tidy expat deals at the expense of taxpayers in Idaho.