The Small Business Administration has blocked the U.S. Agency for International Development from issuing or managing government contracts with small businesses in the wake of a multimillion-dollar bribery scandal uncovered by the Department of Justice.

A USAID contracting officer and three company owners pleaded guilty last month for their roles in a decade-long bribery scheme involving at least 14 prime contracts worth more than $550 million in taxpayer money.

The department said the bribes included cash, laptops, thousands of dollars in tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, down payments on two mortgages, cellphones, and jobs for relatives.

In the last fiscal year, the SBA said Wednesday in a news release that USAID appropriated $3.6 billion through the 8(a) Business Development Program that helps socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses access sole-source and competitive set-aside contracts in the federal marketplace. 

"Under the Trump Administration, the SBA will not tolerate the abuse of the government contracting process," SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said in the release. "The decision to revoke USAID's independent 8(a) contracting authority is necessary to prevent further wrongdoing by an agency with a well-documented record of waste, criminal fraud, and bribery.

"Taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for outright corruption perpetrated by those entrusted with Americans' hard-earned tax dollars."

Loeffler also ordered an audit of the 8(a) program, including high-dollar and limited-competition contracts over the past 15 years. The SBA said the findings will be referred to its Office of Inspector General and Department of Justice, and that it "will pursue all available actions to recover misused funds."

USAID was front and center in the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to streamline the federal government by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. After President Donald Trump began his second term, he ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid pending a review of whether the programs align with his "America First" foreign policy.

In February, the Trump administration put 4,080 USAID staffers across the globe on leave, as well as instituting a reduction in force that affected 1,600 other employees.

Earlier that month, the White House detailed some of USAID's wasteful programs, including $1.5 million to "advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces and business communities"; $70,000 to produce of a "DEI musical" in Ireland; $47,000 for a "transgender opera" in Colombia; $32,000 for a "transgender comic book" in Peru; $2 million for sex-reassignment surgery and "LGBT activism" in Guatemala; and $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in March that more than 80% of USAID's programs were canceled and the approximately 1,000 remaining programs would be folded into the State Department.

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