GAO DOUBTFUL ON ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130081-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 81
• Publication Date: July 9, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130081-1
oLi
GAO Doubtful
Orr Endowment
For' Democracy;
The Endowment for Democracy rope. Did the a ostles of freedom
is off on a quixotic : crusade to p
visit countries where some enlight-
spread the good word aboutdemoc? , enment on the principles of democ-
racy throughout the world-with a racy is sorely needed.) Not .on your
multimillion-dollar purse from the lif,
taxpayers. They went to Jamaica, where the
Despite its laudable purpose the b
h
ployes as having done undercover
wor or t e agency here expend-
_ltures have raised suspicions that
he endowment may be a front for,
Footnote: Brown .denies he h 's?
_ever worked for the CIA. ;
c
endowment appears . are inviting, . the - people
to bespreading .free and the government already
more controversy than democracy. democratic. They also stopped by
Astill-secret draft report by the such solidly democratic capitals as i
General Accounting Office. raises Stockholm, Brussels and Paris. The
questions about the endowment's delegation even brought ,the mes-
operations and responsibilities that sage of democracy to Geneva, cap-
were left unanswered when it was ital of the world's oldest. democra-
rather haphazardly created last cy.
year. i ? According to the draft GAO re-
The GAO noted, for example, port; some projects discussed by
that U.S. ambassadors expressed the endowment's supporters are al-
serious doubts that the endowment ready being funded by other agen-
would be allowed to function in cer- cies.::.:.
tain countries where it would seem ? Though the endowment got a
to be needed most. They also grant from the U.S. Information
feared it would duplicate existing Agency, it haughtily. informed USIA
programs and might conflict with officials that it would not be ac-
U.S. foreign policy. One task force countable to them for the money.
concluded that "a new U.S. program ? At least $20,000 of endowment
to aid democracy abroad was not money was spent to help pro-gov-
needed." ernment candidates in the recent
My associate Donald Goldberg elections in Panama. Another $2
has been investigating whether the million was proposed for the AF L-
endowmentis worth the $31 million CIO's Free . Trade Union Inst~e;
it is trying to pry from the taxpay- R'hoce director Irving Brown. as
ers. Here are his findings: -been identified by former CIA em-
WASHINGTON POST
9 July 1984
? Some of the projects funded by
the 'endowment look suspiciously
like high-priced junkets, not serious
attempts to spread the gospel of de-
mocracy.
The endowment dispatched one
bipartisan delegation of earnest do-
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130081-1