USAID Terminates HIID Contract

The U.S. government terminated a $14 million contract with the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) this June, only four weeks after accusing two institute officials of misconduct.

Administration officials confirmed in July that it will conduce a "management review" in several areas of HIID during the coming months, but would not specify the scope of the review.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) sent a letter to HIID director Jeffrey Sachs ordering the institute to "take immediate and reasonable steps to close out all ongoing activities" by Aug. 1 on its two main projects in Russia, which included technical assistance for legal reform and development of capital markets.

HIID will continue its work in tax reform until Jan. 1 to give USAID time to choose a new contractor. The institute's contract for environmental protection is not affected.

The termination of these contracts comes only three weeks after HIID fired Professor of Economics Andrei Shleifer, the project director, and Jonathan R. Hay, the project director in Moscow, for violation of HIID's conflict of interest rules.