The African Development Foundation (USADF), a small but federally funded agency under USAID, has found itself back in the headlines — not for accomplishing its mission, but for its alleged mismanagement, murky financial dealings, and political entanglements that read more like a bureaucratic thriller than responsible governance. Now, after a D.C. judge reversed its Trump-era shutdown, staff have returned to their desks — even as a damning new Inspector General report throws fresh gasoline on the fire.
The IG’s findings, released Thursday, are extensive and troubling. Despite claims that the agency had raised nearly $46 million in "leveraged" funding from African partners in FY2023 alone, the actual amount collected was just $9 million. In FY2024, the numbers were even more stark: USADF boasted it would bring in over $15 million — it received $2.5 million. From 2022 to 2024, $69 million was pledged by partners. Only $17 million materialized.
Even more alarming? The agency appears to have no system in place to enforce or even verify those pledges. Agreements were not legally binding. Many partnerships lacked documentation altogether. Site visit reports — key for verifying that funds were actually being used for development purposes — were missing from the agency’s database for the majority of grants reviewed. Nearly half of all grants reviewed lacked basic due diligence, and over 40% had incomplete development documentation.
If this were merely a story of bureaucratic inefficiency, it would be bad enough. But it goes deeper — and darker.
CFO Mathieu Zahui, one of the agency’s top officials, is now under criminal investigation for allegedly accepting secret payments from a company awarded sole-source contracts by the foundation. Text messages and bank records revealed over $10,000 in transfers from Ganiam Ltd., owned by Zahui’s associate, Maina Gakure, coinciding with the awarding of those contracts. Agents seized Zahui’s phone in February 2024, and although no charges have been filed yet, the signs are unmistakable.
It’s worth noting that Zahui had previously resisted the Trump administration’s authority, refusing to recognize Trump appointee Peter Marocco and barring auditors from physically entering the building. After U.S. Marshals intervened and the agency was shut down, a lawsuit by an African company led to a court-ordered reversal — and the staff were reinstalled.
Now, even as investigations continue, Zahui is back in his office.
And he’s not alone in controversy. The agency’s other top executive, Elisabeth Feleke, was named in a complaint by former general counsel Mateo Dunne, who alleged that she instructed him to shut down an internal investigation into misconduct. Dunne later filed an EEO complaint for alleged retaliation and anti-white discrimination. Though dismissed by an EEO judge, the appeal is ongoing.
In short, USADF appears to be an agency in disarray — and under federal scrutiny.
The worst part? Taxpayers are footing the bill. USADF receives $50 million a year in U.S. funds, meant to be matched by African partners. But with most of those partnerships nonexistent or unenforceable, the burden of funding remains almost entirely American. And while grantees are supposed to benefit, The Daily Wire previously uncovered that some of that money was routed right back to Washington through consulting contracts and administrative costs.
Herbalife, of all companies — recently fined $122 million for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act — was even named as a “strategic partner.” No documentation of the partnership could be produced.
The agency did acknowledge the IG's findings in a formal response: “We concur with the overall findings and recommendations and acknowledge the opportunities to strengthen our internal policies.”
But acknowledgment is not accountability.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) didn’t mince words: the IG report, he said, is proof that the agency “is beyond repair” and should be abolished.