Recommendation Dashboard

USAID/Mali (1) review its indicators closely to
ensure that the indicator definition and wording are consistent, (2) establish and update targets for each indicator, and (3) report its results accurately based on the correct reporting period in the mission's performance plan and report, the President's Malaria Initiative annual report, and the performance management plan.

USAID/Mali's health team include other performance indicators in the performance management plan that measure the achievements of its malaria portfolio (in addition to those required by the President's Malaria Initiative).

USAID/Mali require CARE to report results on malaria-related indicators and targets included in the 2011 work plan.

USAID/Mali develop and implement a plan with Research Triangle Institute to record data accurately and minimize the possibility of human errors such as double counting.

USAID/Mali, in conjunction with Research Triangle Institute, establish and implement a plan to ensure that all spray operators are using a consistent definition of a structure when tallying results.

USAID/Mali, in conjunction with CARE, verify the malaria-related results in CARE's FY 2010 annual report.

USAID/Mali work closely with John Snow Inc. to (1) ensure that it has accurately recorded, reported, and filed all orders that have been
placed and (2) develop a plan to ensure that future discrepancies are avoided.

USAID/Mali complete required data quality assessments for all indicators reported in its annual performance plan and report.

USAID/Mali develop a procedure to document all site visits and require that visits include data quality testing and verification when possible.

USAID/Mali develop and implement a plan to reinforce the skills of the staff at health-care facilities to enable them to maintain accurate inventory records and manage stock properly.

USAID/Mali develop and implement standard procedures for net distribution and receipt, and verify that the procedures are applied uniformly at all health facilities.

USAID/Mali develop and implement a plan with Research Triangle Institute to ensure that beneficiaries are aware that indoor residual spraying is provided by the American people.

The Asia Bureau's Director of Administrative Management Services assign file custodians for each office.

Directors of Administrative Management Services for the Asia and Africa Bureaus include records management duties in the work plans and performance evaluations of file custodians and records liaison officers.

Chief of the Bureau for Management, Management Services, Information and Records Division, amend USAID's Automated Directives System 502 to make bureaus responsible for implementing the records management program and Information and Records Division responsible for establishing policy and ensuring compliance.

Chief of the Bureau for Management, Management Services, Information and Records Division, amend Automated Directives System 502 to include provisions for mandatory Agency-wide records training.

Director of the Human Resources training and Education Division include an introductory module on the importance of records management and records management policies and procedures (including electronic records) to be presented by the Information and Records Division in USAID's new employee orientation.

Chief of the Bureau for Management, Management Services, Information and Records Division, work with the Deputy Chief Information Officer to develop and execute a plan to manage e-mail records and text documents electronically in accordance with National Archives and Records Administratiaon guidelines.

USAID/Afghanistan implement a nominal charge for no-show passengers.

USAID/Afghanistan clarify the contract's environmental requirements and obtain evidence that the contractor is complying with them.

USAID/Afghanistan determine the allowability of and recover, as appropriate, unsupported questioned costs of $525,467 representing international travel (including premium-class travel of $31,902) by contractor officials that was not approved by USAID as required.

USAID/Afghanistan verify that Aircraft Charter Solutions Inc. has implemented a branding and marking plan.

USAID/Afghanistan verify that Aircraft Charter Solutions Inc. has provided clear instructions and signs in its terminal for passenger convenience and security.

USAID/Afghanistan instruct the contractor to provide transportation for passengers from passenger staging areas to the aircraft (or eliminate this requirement from the contract).

USAID/Afghanistan obtain required reports from Aircraft Charter Solutions Inc.

USAID/Afghanistan clarify its performance standards to Aircraft Charter Solutions Inc. so that realistic expectations and proper reporting and accountability can be obtained.

USAID's Office of Food for Peace work with the cooperating sponsors in Niger to develop and implement procedures for verifying reported data with source documentation, documenting key assumptions and calculations, and maintaining documentation to support results and other data reported to USAID.

USAID's Office of Food for Peace perform a data quality assessment of its programs in Niger to
ensure compliance with USAID guidelines, and document results of the assessment.

USAID's Office of Food for Peace work with all
cooperating sponsors to develop and implement adequate internal controls over per diem payments.

USAID's Office of Food for Peace work with cooperating sponsors to develop and implement a plan to ensure that food commodities are timely available by calling forward commodities at the appropriate time and when needed.

USAID's Office of Food for Peace work with cooperating sponsors to develop and implement a plan to ensure that food commodities are timely available by establishing a contingency plan for distributing food commodities to beneficiaries when warehouses are being fumigated or may not be available for extended periods.

USAID's Office of Food for Peace work with cooperating sponsors to develop a plan to provide
food to participants in its food commodity distribution backlog.

USAID's Office of Food for Peace work with cooperating sponsors to develop an action plan that advises and encourages the community members to establish adequate management and financial
internal controls and oversight over cereal banks and community stores and community members and
cooperating sponsor staff to establish adequate management and financial internal controls and oversight over community and regional warehouses.

USAID's Office of Food for Peace work with cooperating sponsors to review the inventory and
financial records of selected cereal banks and community stores to determine the correct inventory.

USAID's Office of Food for Peace, in conjunction with the cooperating sponsors, reevaluate and
establish realistic and achievable targets for the Food for Peace program indicators.

USAID's Office of Food for Peace work with cooperating sponsors to reevaluate their
performance management plan indicators, determine the important indicators to track, eliminate the less significant indicators, and document the
results.

USAID's Office of Food for Peace, in conjunction with its cooperating sponsors, formulate clear
definitions for selected indicators, and train staff to ensure that consistent terminology is used in gathering and reporting data.

USAID/Egypt obtain the antiterrorism certification required and include the information in the mission's official award files.

USAID/Egypt require the primary implementer to verify that secondary implementers and individuals it provided material support to were not associated with terrorism.

USAID/Egypt provide written guidance to the implementer about USAID's antiterrorism measures, to include requirements for certifications and mandatory clauses for the prohibition of terrorist financing.

USAID/Egypt develop a schedule to verify periodically that the implementer has taken actions to ensure that antiterrorism measures are followed in a timely manner as a part of the mission's management oversight.

USAID/Egypt develop and implement a written data verification checklist for mission staff to use to verify the accuracy of information provided by the implementer.

USAID/Egypt develop and implement a written plan for training assistance recipients about data verification and performance monitoring plans.

USAID/Egypt document a plan to conduct the required reviews and updates of targets for program indicators on a recurring basis.

USAID/Liberia develop and implement a policy requiring all contracting and agreement officer's technical representatives to conduct and document site visits and, when feasible, verify reported indicator data during these site visits.

USAID/Liberia develop and implement an annual site visit plan.

USAID/Liberia, in conjunction with its implementing partner, determine which of the 100
solar light kits can be provided to intended beneficiaries and which should be disposed of properly.

USAID/Liberia establish policies to ensure compliance with environmental requirements for its entire portfolio and that these equirements be communicated to its staff and implementing partners.

USAID/Liberia determine that all activity documents under the Liberia Energy Sector Support Program incorporate appropriate language regarding
environmental compliance and be approved by the appropriate officials prior to project implementation.

USAID/Liberia develop an action plan that contains a timetable to ensure that no
environmentally sensitive activities are begun under the Liberia Energy Sector Support Program until the Initial Environmental Examination is
approved.

USAID/Liberia establish and implement procedures to ensure that mission staff are aware of their responsibilities regarding USAID's branding requirements.

USAID/Haiti develop and implement a procedure to conduct intermittent end-use checks for classrooms procured under the program.

USAID/Haiti require its implementing partners to establish and implement procedures for systematically following up with training participants to assess the impact and effectiveness of training.

Decide how to use the $1.3 million advance guarantee deposited into MCA-Mali's bank account and allocate or reprogram these funds to specific project activities within the compact for better use.

Establish a plan to monitor the $4.7 million obtained by MCA-Mali related to the ASHTROM contract for proper funds segregation and to avoid commingling with regular operating funds, and to facilitate accountability.

Establish a debarment and suspension program to identify and prevent certain contractors with known performance problems from bidding on Millennium Challenge Account program contracts.

Debar ASHTROM to prevent it from winning any future Millennium Challenge Account contract awards.

USAID/El Salvador work with the Government of El Salvador Ministry of Health and University Research Corporation to assess the contract accomplishments to date and design and schedule critical activities that University Research Corporation is required to accomplish in order to contribute to the goal of sustainable results.

USAID/El Salvador work with the Government of El Salvador Ministry of Health to assess the project accomplishments to date and design and schedule critical activities that Abt Associates needs to accomplish in order to contribute to the goal of sustainable results.

USAID/El Salvador reassess the feasibility of the public/private alliance component of the Abt Associates cooperative agreement with the assistance of the mission public/private alliance advisor, and modify the award as appropriate.

USAID/El Salvador work with Abt Associates and University Research Corporation to establish performance indicators that directly reflect program activities and measure the program's intended goals.

USAID/El Salvador revise the reporting requirements specified in the Abt Associates and University Research Corporation awards to better reflect the timeframe for reporting on the selected indicators and require implementer compliance with the revised requirements.

USAID/El Salvador establish and implement procedures to improve the oversight of its maternal and child health activities and to verify the data reported by its implementing partners in their progress reports.

USAID/El Salvador develop and maintain a schedule for the completion of Data Quality Assessments that complies with the requirements of Automated Directives System chapter 203.3.5.2.

USAID/El Salvador and Abt Associates host a user forum for the Sistema Nacional de Abastecimiento to discuss improvements to the system and reach agreement on which improvements are to be implemented.

USAID/El Salvador and Abt Associates work with the Ministry of Health to develop and implement a plan to adapt the Sistema Nacional de Abastecimiento to incorporate the lower levels of health care units (Equipo Comunitario de Salud).

USAID/El Salvador and University Research Corporation perform a site visit to verify that the end users of the fumigation equipment are safely operating the fumigation equipment, which includes verifying that operators have personal protective equipment and that procedures are in place to notify residents in spray areas prior to fumigation activities.

USAID/El Salvador modify the contract with University Research Corporation to include a clause stating its responsibility concerning USAID environmental compliance requirements.

IT Governance Recommendation: We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer update the information technology strategic plan to reflect current enterprise strategic goals.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer develop and implement a formal process for managing risk and updating the information technology strategic plan accordingly. Risk management must drive enterprise architecture decisions, providing secure information system environments for critical applications. The plan should be reviewed at a minimum annually and when major events occur that have an impact on strategic goals. When updating the information technology strategic plan the Chief Information Officer should verify compliance with the Office of Management and Budget Circular No. A-130, Management of Federal Information Systems, with regard to the capital planning and investment control process which includes the information resource management strategic plan and the information technology capital plan which is required to be updated twice yearly.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer complete the enterprise information architecture planning and implementation project as discussed in the Executive Level Notional OCIO 2 Year Portfolio in order to maintain an information architecture that reflects the business requirements.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer develop and implement a project plan for leveraging data as indicated in the authoritative data source process and methodology in order to provide business users access to detailed information to aid in analysis and decision making by June 30th, 2012.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief of Staff develop and implement a formal process that must be consistently applied for the Enterprise Architecture Steering Committee to prioritize information technology enabled-investment programs.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief of Staff formally document and implement a process requiring the Enterprise Architecture Steering Committee to consider risk management when discussing strategic direction and approval of information technology investments.

We recommend that Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer (1) conduct an analysis to determine whether the information technology function has sufficient resources to adequately support the business goals and objectives of the organization and (2) through the organization's budgeting process, submit a written request for additional resources to address any shortfalls identified in the analysis.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Deputy Chief Financial Officer revise the budget policy and procedures to account for the change from line item budgeting to project budgeting.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer develop a process and implement a tool for monitoring project plans and work completed to determine earned value, providing an early warning of performance issues impacting project budgets.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer define quality requirements, criteria, and key performance indicators for evaluation of quality management for key IT processes.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer identify and document standards, procedures, and practices for key IT processes to guide the Agency in defining and evaluating criteria for quality management.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer implement a process to incorporate the following components into its projects:
A project governance structure that includes the roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities of various key players in project management.
Project sponsors assigned for the execution of each project.
Project office and project manager.
Elements such as approving the initiation of phases, communicating to all stakeholders the status of projects, establishing an integrated project plan, project quality plan, and defining the responsibilities of project team members.
Project risk management through the process of planning, identifying, analyzing, responding to, monitoring and controlling risk.
Project change control.
Lessons learned.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer implement a process to verify that risk management plans and Exhibit 300 business cases are consistently used, monitored and updated annually for an IT projects as required.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer finalize and implement the system development life cycle.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer develop and implement a policy to fully address the maintenance of software applications.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer develop and implement a process for ensuring the integration of software into the current infrastructure is properly planned and executed.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Director of Contracting develop and implement information technology acquisition instructions that provide a methodology to evaluate the components of information technology acquisition contracts.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer develop and implement a process to ensure end user testing and evaluation of developed applications.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer develop and implement a process to ensure personnel are trained in the use of developed applications.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer document and implement policies and procedures for data conversion, testing of applications and infrastructure migration.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Director of Contracting develop and implement a process to enforce the creation of service level agreements for all endeavors requiring contract support.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Director of Contracting develop and implement a process for periodic review and feedback of performance for all contractors to improve service delivery and support early detection of potential problems.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Information Officer develop and implement a monitoring process to ensure that all IT projects are provided a priority level commensurate with the direction and goals of the Agency as a whole, not with the goals of individual leaders within the Agency.