Exclusive: Tetra Tech lays off dozens of workers in Ukraine; US prime contractors, unpaid for work done, face local office closures

Tetra Tech, the global consulting and engineering firm, has laid off dozens of workers in Ukraine and faces tens of millions of dollars in costs locally due to the USAID cuts, including a payment freeze on work completed, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The company is one of the largest US implementing partners, or prime contractors, in Ukraine, along with competitors such as DAI Global and AECOM. They now fear further losses of key staff every day the USAID pause continues, even as the Western world contemplates a historic reconstruction project that the World Bank estimates will cost $524 billion.

Most of the more than 300 Tetra Tech employees in Ukraine face the prospect of redundancy unless other donors quickly replace missing US funding. Around 50 have already been laid off, said one source, and the company is sitting on expensive equipment it has bought specifically to carry out contracts in Ukraine that may never be delivered to the partner organisations.