Transparency official says Serbian state bodies also got USAID funds

The Belgrade police under orders from prosecutors investigating alleged misuse of USAID funds raided 4 democracy watchdog NGOs, including one which is reported not to have received any USAID funding.

“We don’t know what prompted prosecutors to conclude that they should check the CRTA, Civic Initiatives, Trag and other NGOs,” Nenadic said and added that “we all know that various state bodies got American funding”. “The fact is that the prosecution said it is checking claims by the US administration and then we saw that they are asking for added information from America. Logically, things should work the other way around,” he said.

The Belgrade Higher Public Prosecution said on Tuesday that it sent a request to the US Justice Department for more information about claims made by US administration officials about the misuse of USAID funding in a number of countries, including Serbia.