A new audit has revealed that only 40 percent of the $110 billion America has poured into global HIV/AIDS prevention since 2003 has gone toward life-saving medical supplies, while billions in taxpayer dollars funded “exorbitant” salaries and left-wing political projects.
The State Department review of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) found “only about 40% of PEPFAR’s budget goes directly to finance on-the-ground service delivery, specifically health commodities and health workers.” Instead, the report showed roughly 60 percent of U.S. aid went to overhead and radical programming, such as a “Transgender Day of Remembrance” and a “decolonizing development series.”
Two major recipients—RTI International and Chemonics—were singled out for mismanagement. RTI International collected more than $13 billion in taxpayer funds while paying its CEO $1.2 million in 2023. Its press arm published reports citing critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi and declared, “Liberation is when all people are free of the oppressive systems of colonialism and white supremacy.”
Chemonics, which has taken in $20 billion in federal money, embedded diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across its operations and offered a six-figure salary for a “DEI director position.”
Simon Hankinson of the Heritage Foundation argued the findings prove the system is broken: “The only ‘oppressive system’ here is the continued fleecing of the taxpayer for projects that produce nothing of benefit to foreign audiences, let alone the Americans who pay for them.”
