The Miami Herald has this doozy today: For the past seven years, Republican state Rep. David Rivera has filed paperwork stating that his main source of income, outside of the legislature, came from working as a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Apparently thatโs news to USAID.
โWe do not have Mr. Rivera nor the corporations you referred to in our records,โ USAID press officer Annette Aulton told Herald in an email.
When the paper asked Rivera to describe how he got his work with the agency, he initially said he won it through competitive bidding. Then, when confronted with the lack of documentation, he changed his answer and said he was only a subcontractor to a company that worked with USAID, which does not keep records on subcontractors to its vendors.
As the paper started digging into the discrepancies, Rivera, who had agreed to an interview, backed out. Rivera also declined to name the company he did work for, and has never listed on his financial disclosure forms how much money he has earned from his consulting work.
Rivera is in a contentious battle with Democrat Joe Garcia in the 25th Congressional District. Rivera has raised $1.3 million so far, versus Garciaโs $860,000.
