Recommendation Dashboard

USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance, Cost, Audit and Support determine the allowability of $5,262, 160 in unsupported direct questioned costs and $23 in ineligible direct questioned costs and collect any disallowed amounts from Terra Therm, Inc. (see pages 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the report).

USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance, Cost, Audit and Support determine the allowability of $160, 126 in reimbursements from Terra Therm, Inc. (see page 2 of the report}.

USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance, Cost, Audit and Support ensure that Terra Therm, Inc. has implemented the auditor's recommendations for Finding #1 (see pages 11 through 15 of the report).

USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance Cost, Audit and Support ensure that Amex International, Inc. has implemented the auditor's recommendations for Findings #1 through #5 (see pages 5 through 11 of the report).

USAID/RDMA conduct a comprehensive data quality assessment of project data to verify that they meet data quality standards.

USAID/RDMA, after the data quality assessment, review and revise the project's monitoring and evaluation plan with the contractor, and implement controls to enforce the plan's use.

USAID/RDMA implement procedures for the contracting officer's representative to follow to confirm, prior to approval, that activity proposals from other U.S. Government agencies clearly relate to project goals.

USAID/RDMA assess the focus of all project activities in the current work plan, and direct the contractor to revise the plan as necessary so that activities advance project goals.

USAID/RDMA require the contractor to implement an overall project work plan that includes activities focused on achieving the project goals.

USAID/RDMA require the contractor to conduct an assessment of the capacity of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat, use the results and input from the Secretariat to formulate capacity-building activities that can be completed in the time remaining, and modify the contract as necessary.

USAID/RDMA require the contractor to revise the project's monitoring and evaluation plan to include indicators for the additional capacity-building activities for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat.

USAID/RDMA review the contract language and revise as appropriate to clarify whether technical reports should be funded entirely by the project.

USAID/Pakistan determine the allowability of ineligible questioned cost of $192,423 discussed on page 2 of the memorandum and identified on pages 13 and 14 of the audit report and detailed on pages 15-17, and recover from the recipient any amounts determined to be unallowable.

USAID/Pakistan implement a plan to review the supporting documentation for leveraged resources submitted by the recipient and confirm in writing that reporting on leverage is accurate and meets USAID standards.

USAID/Colombia work with Tetra Tech ES Inc. to develop a work plan for completing as many of the activities, expected results, and indicator targets as possible.

USAID/Colombia provide written feedback to Tetra Tech ES Inc. on areas of its performance that need improvement to achieve all outstanding contract requirements.

USAID/Colombia determine how much funding will be spent in the time remaining, and reprogram any funds that will not be used.

USAID/Colombia conduct an after-action review to determine what type of programmatic changes should have been made and account for them in future development objective planning.

USAID/Colombia issue written instructions to Tetra Tech ES Inc. to update its grants manual to include the contract prohibition on grants for unproven technology, and then follow the manual in determining which projects qualify.

USAID/Colombia determine the allowability of $1,282,965 in ineligible questioned costs charged to the Clean Energy Program for grants that did not meet the objectives of the program, and recover from Tetra Tech ES Inc. the amount determined to be unallowable.

USAID/Colombia review any awards by Tetra Tech ES Inc. to affiliates and require those entities to disclose all potential conflicts of interest between themselves and any other affiliated companies related to noncompetitive pricing practices, and provide any findings to the Office of Acquisition and Assistance in Washington.

USAID/Colombia implement an Agency-contracted audit of Tetra Tech ES Inc. and its subcontractor Tetra Tech ARD to determine if the practice of hiring an affiliate has resulted in excessive costs to the program that might be recovered.

USAID/Colombia issue written instructions to Tetra Tech ES Inc. to modify the intercompany subcontract agreement it has with Tetra Tech ARD to tie payment of fees to achievement of targets and to include all applicable clauses required in other subcontracts to resolve the special treatment given to it.

USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance determine if Tetra Tech ES Inc.'s bidding practice of including affiliated companies as subcontractors violates fair competition requirements and if any of these awards should be terminated because of conflicts of interest.

USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance, if it determines that Tetra Tech ES Inc.'s bidding practice is fair, implement guidance for bidders on how to present costs of affiliated companies in contract proposals, and for its staff on how to review and evaluate such proposals.

USAID/Colombia review Tetra Tech ES Inc.'s consultancy agreements to verify compliance with Colombian labor laws.

USAID/Colombia require implementers to provide the mission with the assessments they conducted, and evaluate them to confirm that they are conducted in accordance with regulations.

USAID/Colombia monitor and review expenses submitted by Tetra Tech ES Inc. to confirm that they are reasonable and allowable before paying them.

USAID/Colombia determine the allowability of $192,106 in ineligible questioned costs charged to the Clean Energy Program for subcontracts and consulting fees incurred without the competition required by Tetra Tech ES Inc.'s manuals, through either a financial review or an Agency-contracted audit, and recover from Tetra Tech ES Inc. the amount determined to be unallowable.

USAID chief human capital officer conduct a needs assessment and, based on the results, implement a plan to staff development outreach and communications specialists in overseas missions.

USAID chief human capital officer implement a process to track and report the number of U.S. personal services contractors in mentoring programs consistent with reporting for other employment categories.

OAA issue a policy prohibiting the classification of U.S. personal services contract positions by the hiring office.

OAA implement a plan to require overseas missions to modify all active U.S. personal services contracts to accurately reflect the work required, to exclude "other duties as assigned" or similar language, and to confirm that missions took the required corrective action.

OAA issue new guidance requiring minimum standards for periodic, written performance evaluations for all long-term U.S. personal services contractors.

USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance, Cost, Audit and Support ensure that Social Impact, has implemented the auditor's recommendation for Finding #1 (see page 4 of the report).

We recommend that the Vice President of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Department of Compact Operations recover the ineligible cost of $84,362, as described on page 28, and provide our office with documentation to verify the amount recovered.

We recommend that the Vice President of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Department of Compact Operations request MCA-Jordan to submit a corrective action plan to correct the significant internal control deficiencies and the material instances of noncompliance described on pages 42 to 60.

Develop and implement policy and operational guidance from the findings and recommendations made in its October 2012 Operations Review to improve sustainability planning.

Develop and implement policy and operational guidance that require countries in future compacts to develop and annually update sustainability plans that specifically identify the risks and challenges to sustainability and proposed options to manage and mitigate these risks, as recommended in the Operations Review. In addition, such plans should establish (1) a clear vision of goals to be achieved, (2) a mechanism to assess their effectiveness in terms of the completeness, robustness, and cohesiveness of sustainability measures and (3) a mechanism to monitor and report on progress of sustainability measures.

The Director of OAA implement policies and procedures for procurements related to transporting the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance's emergency commodities. Policies and procedures should require the segregation of duties-so that Transportation contracting officers have clear lines of authority and adequate management oversight-and routine updates to the division's Web page so that it contains current, accurate information.

The Director of OAA update the Transportation Division's portion of USAID's Web site to reflect current information, and provide guidance to potential contractors on the procurement process for Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance emergency commodity transportation.

The Director of OAA initiate the closeout of award AID-OAA-O-15-00003.

The Director of OAA deobligate the reported unliquidated balance of $11,532,247 from award no. AID-OAA-O-15-00003, and put the funds to better use.

The Director of OAA review its Ebola portfolio, and verify that each applicable award file is entered completely into the Agency Secure Image and Storage Tracking database.

The Director of OAA review its current training program on the use of the Agency Secure Image and Storage Tracking database, and incorporate identified improvements to promote greater policy
compliance.

The Director of OAA review its Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance Ebola portfolio and confirm that each of the awards has an agreement officer's representative designated by the agreement officer and that the designation letter is in the official award file.