On July 17, 2007, the Federal Register published an announcement describing USAID's intention to create a new Partner Vetting System (PVS), which would require nonprofit organizations that apply for USAID contracts, grants and cooperative agreements to provide personal information on staff for the purpose of vetting by the U.S. government. The stated intent of the PVS is to prevent USAID funds from being diverted to terrorists. As stewards of both public and private dollars, InterAction and its members share USAID’s commitment to ensure that charitable funds do not end up in the hands of terrorist organizations. InterAction believes, however, that the PVS presents significant risk to the NGO community, is incompatible with a strong partnership between USAID and the NGO community, violates certain fundamentals of privacy and due process, and is not likely to achieve its stated purpose.
Since the first announcement was published, InterAction has expressed its concerns about the negative consequences that would result from an implementation of the PVS by addressing letters to members of both the Bush and Obama administrations , submitting comments to the Federal Register notices regarding the PVS (published on July 17, July 20 and July 23, 2007, and on January 2, 2009) and participating in public and closed meetings with representatives from both administrations.
Our key concerns include:
On August 4, 2009, the privacy rule that allows USAID to implement the PVS became effective. InterAction expects to continue to engage in a dialogue with the Obama administration regarding our concerns that persist despite more than two years of advocacy on this issue.