Sir,

Much like his predecessor, Anne Peterson, USAID’s Kent Hill has an impossible job, and I sympathize with him. But in attempting to defend his agency’s work on malaria In "America battles malaria every day" (April 25 05) he continues his agency’s willful misleading of the American people, much as his boss did with Senator Brownback (see "USAID fights malaria blindfolded," April 21 05). As my coauthored paper, "The Blind Hydra" documents, USAID has failed in nearly every respect to combat malaria over the past 6 years, as its budget has soared. USAID may "support" spraying, bed nets and drugs, but its maximum allocation of 5% of a total budget of $80m on all three, nearly all on nets, justify saying they "support" these initiatives--that is misleading on an Enron scale). The ongoing GAO investigation into USAID’s malaria programs must report soon so that the children of Africa, and the US taxpayer, get a better deal.

Roger Bate is a resident fellow at AEI.