U.S. to Require Charity Workers to Give More Information

The Bush administration plans to screen thousands charity workers who work for organizations that receive U.S. Agency for International Development funds.^[1] The measure is being put in place to ensure that the workers are not connected with individuals or groups associated with terrorism.^[2]

The program is described in its federal register notice as the Partner Vetting System; it demands for the first time that nongovernmental organizations file information with the government on each officer, board member and key employee and those associated with an application for AID funds or managing a project when funded.^[3]

The information is to include name, address, date and place of birth, citizenship, Social Security and passport numbers, sex, and profession or other employment data.^[4] The data collected will be used to conduct national security screening to ensure these persons have no connection to entities or individuals associated with terrorism or deemed to be a risk to national security.^[5] However the government does not plan to reveal its use of that information and does not intend to tell groups deemed unacceptable why they are rejected.^[6]

Until now nongovernmental organizations had been required to check their own employees and then certify to AID that they were certain no one was associated with individuals or groups that appeared on applicable governmental terrorist listings.^[7]

This new, far broader, vetting program would involve U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies and could result in the denial of applications for funding.^[8] But AID is also seeking to withhold any of its findings from disclosure because the decision would be based on "classified and sensitive law enforcement and intelligence information," according to a second Federal Register notice seeking exemption for the program from the Privacy Act.^[9]

The federal register report said that USAID cannot confirm or deny whether an individual passed or failed screening, the notice says, to protect counterterrorism and counterintelligence missions as well as the personal safety of those involved in counterterrorism investigations.^[10]

The plan has aroused concern and debate among some of the larger U.S. charitable organizations and recipients of AID funding. Officials of InterAction, representing 165 foreign aid groups, said last week that the plan would impose undue burdens and has no statutory basis; the organization requested that it be withdrawn.^[11]

"We don't know who will do the vetting, what the standards are and whether we could answer any allegation," said an executive for a major nongovernmental organization that would be subject to the new requirements who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to harm his organization's relations with the government.^[12]

The Global Health Council, an international membership alliance of public health professionals in more than 100 countries, yesterday described the plan as "a sweeping information-gathering and recordkeeping measure that would impose a high administrative burden."^[13]

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^[1] Walter Pincus, Foreign Aid Groups Face Terror Screens, Washington Post, August 23, 2007; Page A01, available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082202847.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=new (last visited August 25, 2007).
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.
^[12] Id.
^[13] Id.