Recommendation Dashboard

USAID/Afghanistan require that its training on statement-of-work preparation be provided to all new contracting officer's technical representatives.

USAID/Afghanistan develop procedures, such as the use of quality control checklists, to ensure that statements of work include such critical elements as clear deliverables with specified due dates.

USAID/Afghanistan establish procedures requiring that a labor skills assessment be performed by a contractor, either upon award of a construction contract or upon the award of a task order under the contract. The assessment would include, as appropriate but not limited to, the availability of qualified local labor, vocational training needed to cultivate local labor, and plans to coordinate with the mission to obtain appropriate visas for non-Afghan labor.

USAID/Afghanistan establish written procedures to ensure that all significant construction projects have onsite quality assurance engineers.

The mission develop an overall implementation plan for the Kabul power plant project that incorporates updated construction schedules for the contractor and subcontractor, identifies delays in critical tasks, and establishes steps to keep the project on track.

USAID/Afghanistan develop a comprehensive sustainability plan that includes considerations for anticipated fuel purchases as well as the impact and timing of future mission projects affecting the 105-megawatt plant.

USAID/Afghanistan prepare a detailed implementation plan that documents the current status of the Kajakai project and explains how the mission intends to proceed with installation of turbine 2, including potential barriers to successful installation of the turbine and contingency plans to overcome these barriers.

USAID/Afghanistan recover at least $2.1 million (including interest imputed through May 13, 2009) from the contractor.

USAID/Guatemala's follow-on democracy and governance program aim to implement reforms at sufficient scale to achieve transformational impact.

USAID/Guatemala include support for civil society advocacy efforts in its follow-on program or arrange for such support in coordination with other donors.

USAID/Guatemala condition further efforts to train Government of Guatemala employees on progress toward civil service reform.

USAID/Guatemala, in coordination with its implementing partners, establish procedures for systematically evaluating and following up with training participants as appropriate to assess the impact and effectiveness of training.

USAID/Guatemala make a determination of eligibility for $36,238 in unsupported leverage contributions and $598,188 in ineligible contributions under the Youth Alliance Program and for any shortfalls in contributions obtain additional contributions under the current Youth Challenge Program.

USAID/Guatemala verify that Creative Associates has implemented a satisfactory system for valuing volunteer work under the program.

USAID/Guatemala, in conjunction with its implementing partners, develop and implement a system to reasonably ensure that reported information is accurate.

USAID/Guatemala develop a performance management plan for its follow-on democracy and governance program that meets USAID policy requirements.

USAID/Egypt develop and document a training plan for assistance recipients to explain USAID rules, regulations, and expectations, prior to beginning activities.

USAID/Egypt develop and document a training plan to provide its democracy and governance staff refresher training on how to effectively manage programs including contracting and financial management responsibilities.

USAID/Egypt document a review of its programs to determine whether a mission-wide order on antiterrorism measures would help to mitigate the mission's risk of inadvertently providing financing to terrorist organizations or individuals associated with terrorism.

USAID/Egypt document and provide training to the democracy and governance implementers on USAID's antiterrorism measures.

USAID/Egypt develop a standardized checklist to document management reviews as a part of democracy and governance program assessments.

USAID/Egypt make a management decision on the questioned cost sharing and recover estimated cost share contributions of $8,493 identified for amounts deemed payable.

USAID/Egypt document a review of the democracy and governance agreements' financial information to determine if appropriate cost share contributions have been made and document a plan to recover any outstanding contributions.

USAID/Egypt develop a written plan to require its technical representatives to provide certifications about training participants' noncompliance with documentation requirements, which would be reported to the mission director immediately to limit potential governmental liabilities.

USAID/Egypt explore and document possibilities to recover the unused equipment and put it to immediate and better use within 15 days.

USAID/Egypt document a review of authorizing designation letters for its technical representatives to ensure that staff have appropriate authority to manage agreements and administratively approve financial payments.

USAID/Philippines develop and implement procedures that require the agreement officer's technical representative to review the Sustainable Health Improvements through Empowerment and Local Development Project in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao's performance management plan on an annual or semiannual basis to ensure that it contributes to an effective system of measuring progress toward intended objectives.

USAID/Philippines provide written guidance to its implementers as to what constitutes "training" for purposes of reporting project performance.

USAID/Philippines develop and implement procedures that require its agreement officer's technical representative to periodically conduct an independent review of the performance data submitted by implementers.

USAID/Democratic Republic of Congo update the Displaced Children and Orphans Fund's performance management plan in accordance with USAID guidance and develop specific procedures to assign responsibility for regularly updating the document.

Recommendation 1: We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president, Department of Compact Implementation, define development impact and reasonable financial return and develop specific measures and targets for use in evaluating the Georgia Regional Development Fund's performance against its primary objective.

Justify the Fund Manager's existing compensation arrangement (see page 9)

Require that the Fund Manager develop policy and procedures for conducting character due diligence for each investee and for documenting the results of the character due diligence (see page 11)

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president, Department of Compact Implementation, provide the Fund Manager with current Millennium Challenge Corporation guidance on vetting of individuals and organizations receiving United States taxpayer funding.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president, Department of Compact Implementation, require that the Fund Manager identify and document the environmental laws, regulations, and requirements relevant to the investments.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president, Department of Compact Implementation, require that the Fund Manager review its loan agreements with investees and specify actions in the agreements with regard to the asbestos.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president, Department of Compact Implementation, require periodic environmental reviews by Millennium Challenge Georgia of the Georgia Regional Development Fund's investments and ensure that environmental audits are done when required.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president, Department of Compact Implementation, revise the Fund Management Agreement Investment Policy Guidelines to include guidelines preventing investments in investees with resources to fund their own projects.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Vice President for Compact Implementation require the Millennium Development Authority to revise and implement a procedure that would ensure that participating financial institutions' loan payments are paid into the Millennium Development Authority repayment account at the Bank of Ghana, as required by the Agricultural Credit Program Policy and Procedure Manual.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Vice President of Compact Implementation require the Millennium Development Authority establish and implement a process for the Bank of Ghana to monitor loan repayments which identify participating financial institutions that have missed payments.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Vice President for Compact Implementation require the Bank of Ghana and the Millennium Development Authority to establish and implement a borrowing limit for each of the accredited participating financial institutions by September 30, 2009.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Vice President for Compact Implementation require the Millennium Development Authority to develop and implement procedures in order for the Bank of Ghana to conduct annual reviews of the participating financial institutions before their accreditation expires.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Vice President for Compact Implementation require the Millennium Development Authority to validate, by September 30, 2009, that the Bank of Ghana is implementing the process by which participating financial institutions will sign a loan agreement before the Bank of Ghana disburses their loans.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president for Compact Implementation develop and document a Millennium Challenge Corporation/Millennium Challenge Georgia Fund action plan, which lays out construction milestones and related activities that need to take place, to ensure the Samtskhe-Javakheti Road Rehabilitation Project is completed within the time period of the compact.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president for Compact Implementation request that the Millennium Challenge Georgia Fund obtain from the contractor from the initial advance, the amount of $2,316,824.27, which would now be considered an overpayment on the section.

We also recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president of Compact Implementation have an audit conducted to determine how the advance payment was used to cover the cost of mobilization.

USAID/Sudan develop policies and procedures to help ensure future feasibility studies of USAID-funded projects are provided with a) adequate funding and scheduling, and b) unambiguous instructions regarding the nature and extent of technical analyses to be performed.

USAID/Sudan retain a consulting engineer at least through the estimated completion date of the Juba-Nimule road.

USAID/Sudan revise its branding strategy for the Juba-Nimule road project to focus more on direct communication with project beneficiaries.

USAID/Sudan determine whether its recipients' subawards contain the required provision concerning the implementation of Executive Order 13224 and require that the recipients incorporate the required provision into any subawards from which it was omitted.

USAID/Paraguay, in coordination with the implementing partner and the Government of Paraguay, establish an action plan with benchmarks and timeframes to assess the capabilities of staff in the forensics laboratory and provide necessary training, complete the implementation of strengthened internal controls in five ministries, and implement an online interface for public registry information.

USAID/Paraguay include a clause in the agreement for the second threshold program that would allow it to recover any expenditures that are wasted as a result of failure of the Government of Paraguay to fulfill its obligations under the agreement.

USAID/Paraguay focus border and customs control activities during the follow-on program on Ciudad del Este.

USAID/Paraguay, in coordination with its implementing partners establish procedures to track statistics on outcomes related to complaints of judicial misconduct, customs law enforcement actions, and tax and customs evasions cases.

USAID/Paraguay, in coordination with DETAVE, verify that all maintenance issues and/or manufacturing defects have been resolved to put the 10 idle boats costing $357,320 in operation.

USAID/Paraguay ensure that DETAVE develops and implements an action plan for maintaining and using the boats.

USAID/Paraguay formalize a procedure to conduct periodic end-use checks for commodities purchased under the program.

USAID/Paraguay, in coordination with its partners, budget for and schedule an independent security assessment of the identification and passport system as soon as possible.