Less Oversight, Less Funding: A New Corruption Risk for International Organizations

For decades, international organizations have relied on two key safeguards to protect aid and development projects from corruption:

Strong enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which has deterred corporate bribery in international contracts.

Robust development budgets, ensuring that donor-funded projects have the resources to operate transparently.

But both of these safeguards are now under threat.

On February 10, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice to halt FCPA prosecutions, arguing that strict enforcement disadvantages U.S. companies in global markets. This decision effectively weakens one of the strongest corporate anti-bribery mechanisms in the world, just as major aid donors — including USAID and FCDO — have significantly cut their development budgets.

The result? A perfect storm of corruption risk: fewer legal consequences for corporate misconduct and fewer resources for oversight in aid-funded projects.

For international organizations that depend on private-sector suppliers, this raises serious concerns about procurement integrity, financial accountability, and the future of anti-corruption enforcement in aid and development programs.