U.S. funds for democracy in Cuba spent on cashmere

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U.S. funds for democracy in Cuba spent on cashmere
Congressional audit finds little oversight, accountability in program

U.S. funds intended to promote democracy in Cuba have been used to buy crab meat, cashmere sweaters, computer games and chocolates, according to a U.S. congressional audit published on Wednesday.

The survey by the Government Accountability Office found little oversight and accountability in the program, which paid out $76 million between 1996 and 2005 to support Cuban dissidents, independent journalists, academics and others.

It also found that 95 percent of the grants were issued without competitive tenders.

To protect recipients from prosecution, none of the money from the U.S. Agency for International Development or State Department is paid in cash to people in Cuba. A Cuban law sends citizens to jail for receiving money from the U.S. government.

Instead, the funds are distributed to Cuban-American groups in Miami, the heartland of opposition to Cuban President Fidel Castro, and in Washington, and used to buy medicines, books, shortwave radios and other goods that are smuggled into Cuba.

President George W. Bush has proposed increasing spending on Cuba-related programs, including propaganda transmissions by Radio and TV Marti, by $80 million over the next two years.

Critics have long charged the grants are aimed more at winning votes in Miami than triggering political change on the communist island, where the now-ailing Castro has ruled since his 1959 revolution.

Out of 10 recipients of public money reviewed by the auditors, three failed to keep adequate financial records, the Government Accountability Office said. A lot of the money was used to pay smugglers, or "mules, to avoid U.S. restrictions on taking goods to Cuba.

The auditors questioned checks written out to some staff members, questionable travel expenses and payments to a manager's family. One group acknowledged selling books it was supposed to distribute under the democracy-promoting program.

One grantee "could not justify some purchases made with USAID funds, including a gas chain saw, computer gaming equipment and software (including Nintendo Game Boys and Sony PlayStations), a mountain bike, leather coats, cashmere sweaters, crab meat and Godiva chocolates," the report said.

The auditors did not identify the recipients.

Juan Carlos Acosta, executive director of Miami-based anti-Castro group Cuban Democratic Action, told the Miami Herald he sent those items to Cuba, apart from the chain saw.

"These people are going hungry. They never get any chocolate there," Acosta said, according to the newspaper.

He said he bought the jackets and sweaters at a sale.

"They (the auditors) think it's not cold there (in Cuba)," Acosta said. "At $30 it's a bargain because cashmere is expensive. They were asking for sweaters, from Cuba."

Acosta did not immediately return a phone call from Reuters.

The audit was ordered by U.S lawmakers opposed to the 44-year-old U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, and they said the findings confirmed the need for a thorough review of U.S. policy.

"Let me just say that, to continue a current level of funding, given the results and given the disarray this program seems to be in, would be a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars," Rep. Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, told reporters in Washington.