During the recent Senate confirmation hearings, plenty of political claims were made from both sides of the aisle, regardless of the party. In the confirmation hearing for then-Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon CEO faced questioning from several senators, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky). Paul started discussing foreign aid paid out by the United States to countries around the world, especially what are considered developing countries. The discussion turned into a back-and-forth as to whether or not the money was reaching the intended groups. Paul said this:
"We give foreign aid to developing countries, and 70 percent of it's stolen off the top."
Our partners at PolitiFact Florida decided to check into Sen. Paul's claim to see if it was accurate. PolitiFact reporter Joshua Gillin says that his claim rates FALSE on the Truth-O-Meter. Gillin says that the Kentucky senator found a number indicating one thing, and misappropriated it into a representation of another thing.
"We contacted Sen. Paul's office to find out where he got that number," said Gillin. "His office referred us to an article written by an NYU professor. In that article, the professor noted that 76 percent of the countries that get foreign aid have some form of corrupt or non-functioning government. The problem here is that the actual findings for how foreign aid is spent does not support Paul's claim. There's really nothing that says 70 percent of funding is stolen off the top."
Gillin says that you have to dig deeper to find evidence of mishandling of funds. "You have to look through the records on a case-by-case basis for each country," said Gillin. "For example, we took a look at numbers from Iraq. A study showed that anywhere from five to nine percent of foreign aid to Iraq has been either misappropriated or just plain disappeard. That's nowhere near the 70 percent that Sen. Paul is citing."
Based on the misuse of the statistic and the lack of other evidence to the contrary, Sen. Paul's statement earns a FALSE rating on PolitiFact's Truth-O-Meter.
Sources: Foreign aid stolen off the top?
- PolitiFact ruling
- U.S. Senate, Secretary of State confirmation hearing, Jan. 11, 2017
- U.S. Agency for International Development - Office of Inspector General, Fraud Investigations Expose Weaknesses in Syria Humanitarian Aid Programs, July 14, 2016
- Global Fund, Investigation in Burkina Faso, Oct. 30, 2015
- U.S. Agency for International Development - Office of Inspector General, West African Man Charged In $12 Million Anti-Malaria Program Fraud Scheme, Oct. 30, 2015
- Time, U.S. Has No Idea How Much Aid To The Afghan Government Is Being Stolen, Jan. 30, 2014
- Economist, Misplaced charity, June 11, 2016
- New York Review of Books, The War on Terror vs. the War on Poverty, Nov. 24, 2016
- Der Spiegel, US Cuts Aid After Millions Siphoned Off to Dubai, July 5, 2010
- Government Accountability Office, AFGHANISTAN Key Oversight Issues for USAID Development Efforts, March 13, 2014
- Brown University, US Reconstruction Aid for Afghanistan: The Dollars and Sense, Jan. 5, 2015
- New American, Rand Paul Calls for Investigation of Foreign Aid Fraud, May 2, 2013
- Commission on Wartime Contracting, Report to Congress, August 2011
- World Bank, Anti-corruption, Nov. 28, 2016
- Daily Mail, A country so corrupt it would be better to burn our aid money, Aug. 8, 2013
- Email interview, Sergio Gor, spokesman, Office of Sen. Rand Paul, Jan., 16, 2017
- Email interview, William Easterly, development economist, New York University, Jan. 15, 2017
- Email interview, Morten Broberg, professor of international development law, Copenhagen University, Jan. 14, 2017