Recommendation Dashboard

USAID/Southern Africa formulate policies and procedures to help ensure that due diligence is exercised in making management decisions, that management decisions are well reasoned and that management decisions are well documented.

USAID/Southern Africa develop and implement a plan to periodically assess a sample of management decisions to ensure that due diligence is exercised in making management decisions, that management decisions are well reasoned and that management decisions are well documented.

USAID/Southern Africa remind its contract and agreement officers of the importance of maintaining timely and sufficient documentation in the official files to provide a complete background as a basis for informed decisions, support actions taken by the contracting/agreement officer, provide information for reviews and investigations, and furnish essential facts in the event of litigation or congressional inquiries.

USAID/Southern Africa ensure that all documentation relevant to management decisions reviewed in this audit be incorporated into the official agreement files.

USAID/Southern Africa establish procedures to ensure that all delinquent recipient contracted audits are completed in accordance with USAID policies and procedures, including periodically educating cognizant technical officers and recipients as to (1) USAID's audit requirements and their roles in the audit process, (2) techniques that can be used to expedite the completion of audits, and (3) their need to monitor the audit process.

USAID/Southern Africa establish policies and procedures that provide the mission director with a monthly executive report that reflects the implementation of the mission's audit plan by team, identifies delinquent and potentially delinquent audits, and highlights actions that must be taken to address delinquent and potentially delinquent audits.

USAID/Southern Africa obtain and submit final audit reports for all delinquent audits.

USAID/Brazil obtain evidence that the International Institute of Education of Brazil (IEB), the Institute of Environmental Research in the Amazon (IPAM), and the World Wildlife Fund Brazil (WWF-Brazil) have corrected the monitoring and accountability issues discussed in this finding.

USAID/Brazil establish internal controls that will prevent the recurrence of the types of monitoring and accountability issues discussed in this finding.

USAID/Brazil remind its partners of the requirement to submit all subawards for cognizant technical officer approval.

USAID/Brazil require an audit of Instituto Florestal Tropical's reconstructed accounting records for fiscal years 2005 and 2006 as well as its accounting records for fiscal year 2007 related to USAID funds.

USAID/Brazil send the replacement cognizant technical officers to attend the required training and familiarize themselves with the roles and responsibilities outlined in the Automated Directives System, the cognizant technical officer designation letter, and the award agreements.

USAID/Brazil's environment program establish procedures to ensure adequate oversight of its projects. At a minimum, all travel vouchers should be accompanied by a site visit report, and a site visit checklist should be used that includes verification of reported results.

USAID/Brazil revise its current performance indicators so that they (1) are precisely defined and (2) better reflect the progress of its partners' activities.

USAID/Brazil develop an appropriate performance indicator to measure the economic benefits of the USAID/Brazil environment program or reinstate the previously used indicator " Increase in the volume of revenues from sale of sustainable goods and environmental services benefiting poor, rural communities. "

The agreement officer review the conditions under which the active cooperative agreements managed by the USAID/Brazil environment program office were awarded and determine if the awards should be re-competed under a Request for Application or other mechanism.

The agreement officer and USAID/Brazil establish procedures to ensure that future award processes are not compromised.

USAID/Brazil establish procedures to report results in its annual operating reports that are accurate, complete, supported with adequate documentation, and clearly linked to USAID funding.

USAID/Brazil obtain the necessary training data on its environmental activities from its partners from fiscal year 2004 to present and input these data into the USAID training network.

USAID/Brazil institute procedures to collect and input training data into the USAID training network quarterly.

USAID/Sudan develop and implement a plan, with milestones, to provide training to all implementing partners and service providers on how to (a) property record and report on program results, (b) maintain source documents, and (c) avoid mathematical errors.

USAID/Sudan establish procedures to ensure that reported results from implementing partners meet validity, reliability and timeliness standards.

USAIDISudan (a) establish procedures requiring senior mission management review and approval of final performance management plans and (b) review and approve the performance management plan for the education program.

USAJD/Sudan strengthen its procedures to ensure that all of its data quality assessments include a thorough review of data validity and reliability.

USAID/Sudan establish procedures that require the regular confirmation of data validity and reliability, as well as adequate reporting systems, for results during site visits at all implementing partners and service providers.

USAID/Sudan establish procedures requiring that the confirmation of data validity and reliability during site visits be documented in site visit reports.
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USAID/Bolivia determine the allowability with regard to the unsupported questioned costs of $79,285 and recover from Engendered Health the amount determined to be unallowable.

USAID/Bolivia determine the allowability of $134,309 in unsupported cost sharing contributions and $229,500 in ineligible required cost sharing contributions that were not made as of June 30, 2008 and recover from Engender Health the amount determined to be unallowable

USAID/Bolivia determine the allowability with regard to the 12.5 percent of ineligible questioned salary cost in the amount of $76,343 as well as associated indirect costs totaling $59,072 and recover from Engender Health the amount determined to be unallowable.

USAID/Bolivia determine the allowability of unsupported salary in the amount of $26,400 as this is deemed a questioned cost as well as associated indirect costs of $20,427 and recover from Engender Health the amount determined to be unallowable.

USAID/Bolivia determine the allowability of the 50 percent of temporary office costs deemed an ineligible questioned cost in the amount of $1,397 as well as associated indirect costs totaling $297 and recover from Engender Health the amount determined to be unallowable.

USAID/Bolivia determine the allowability with regard to all consulting expenses above $500 totaling $261,184 for cooperative agreement 511-A-00-06-00210-00 as these are deemed to be ineligible questioned costs as well as the associated indirect costs of $55,684 and recover from Engender Health the amount determined to be unallowable.

USAID/Washington (Global Health) determine the allowability with regard to all consulting expenses above $500 totaling $411,653 for the global agreement GPO-A-00-03-00006-00 as these are deemed ineligible questioned costs and the associated indirect cost rates coming to $87,764 and recover from Engender Health the amount determined to be unallowable.

The agreement officer for the Global Field Support agreement no. GPO-A-00-03-00006-00 determine the allowability with regard to ineligible questioned costs of $4,000, as well as the related estimated indirect costs of $852 and recover from Engender Health the amount determined to be unallowable.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president, Department of Compact Implementation, revise the two indicators-percentage of MCA-Honduras loan portfolio at risk and funds lent from MCA-Honduras to financial institutions-to reflect MCC's and MCA-H's revision of the Farmers Access to Credit activity.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president, Department of Compact Implementation, analyze the Rural Development Project, Farmer Training and Development Activity to explain what contributed to the increased income of beneficiaries and document the analysis.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president, Department of Compact Implementation, develop a strategy to resolve budget shortfalls when they occur.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president, Department of Compact Implementation, clarify MCC's expectations on roles and responsibilities of the MCA Monitoring and Evaluation function, specifically on the use of monitoring as a management tool.

We recommend that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's vice president, Department of Compact Implementation, issue guidance by December 31, 2008 on reporting requirements for performance deviations from the targets established in its Monitoring and Evaluation Plans.

USAID/Mozambique issue and implement guidance to its implementing partners prohibiting the use or distribution of expired PEPFAR commodities and requiring that expired commodities be returned to the provincial and central warehouses for disposal.

USAID/Mozambique, in collaboration with the Supply Chain Management System and the Ministry of Health's Center for Medicines and Medical Supplies, incorporate measures to improve commodity storage conditions into project work plans.

USAID/Mozambique, in cooperation with the Supply Chain Management System, develop and implement a monitoring and evaluation plan for PEPFAR commodity storage to ensure that commodities are stored in accordance with John Snow International/Deliver Guidelines for Proper Storage of Health Commodities.

USAID/Mozambique, in collaboration with the Supply Chain Management System, provide a Portuguese translation of the John Snow International/Deliver Guidelines for Proper Storage of Health Commodities and distribute the guidelines to all warehouses storing PEPFAR commodities as a reference for warehouse personnel and develop an action plan with milestones to conduct inventory management training as part of ongoing and regular site visits.

USAID/Mozambique develop action plans to conduct regular site visits to health facilities and storage warehouses that use and store PEPFAR commodities.

USAID/Mozambique collaborate with Mozambique's Ministry of Health to develop procedures to provide USAID/Mozambique with improved access to Ministry of Health project sites.

USAID/Mozambique develop specific procedures to validate reported data from service providers in conjunction with site visits.

USAID/Mozambique develop procedures and implement a plan to verify partner compliance with USAID's branding requirements.

USAID/Dominican Republic, under its new anticorruption strategy, assign responsibility for meeting program performance targets to specific entities or partners where appropriate and obtain their concurrence that the performance targets are achievable within the strategy period.

USAID/Dominican Republic follow up to ensure that the corruption case tracking system has been put into use.

USAID/Dominican Republic, in its new strategy, reach agreement with partners on procedures for systematically evaluating the effectiveness of training provided.

USAID/Dominican Republic exercise its influence with the Government of the Dominican Republic to ensure that the pilot institutions implement the recommended anticorruption measures that were developed through the pilot projects.

USAID/Dominican Republic revise the performance management plan to correct the reporting issues discussed in this report.

USAID/Dominican Republic report on its performance management plan performance indicators in its next operating plan results report.

USAID/Dominican Republic implement controls to provide reasonable assurance that complete and accurate information is reported in the performance management plan and operating plan results report. This should include assigning responsibility for verifying reported information and providing feedback to partners on progress reports to specific staff members.

USAID/Afghanistan determine the key indicators to measure and report results and revise the indicators at the implementer level, the mission level, or both, to more accurately link the activity data to the mission's planned results.

USAID/Afghanistan intervene with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education to reach an agreement on appropriate collaborative actions to further the Higher Education Project.

USAID/Afghanistan collaborate with the Academy for Educational Development and applicable Afghanistan universities to develop an exit strategy so that key services of professional development centers will continue after project completion.

USAID/Afghanistan implement appropriate procedures to strengthen (1) project monitoring, (2) review and approval of project documents, and (3) maintenance of the cognizant technical officer project file for the Higher Education Project.

USAID/Pakistan's contracting office identify and document critical contracting processes, and provide training to mission personnel responsible for these processes.

USAID/Pakistan perform a contractor evaluation of Camp Dresser and Mckee International Inc., in accordance with Agency procedures.

USAID/Pakistan modify Mission Order 203.1 to specify that cognizant technical officers are responsible for approving implementing partner and contractor performance management plans.

USAID/Pakistan perform a data quality assessment for the mission's earthquake reconstruction activities by March 31, 2009.

USAID/Iraq include outcome indicators in the National Capacity Development Program's performance management plan that measure improvement in the Iraqi ministries ability to deliver core services.

USAID/Iraq direct the National Capacity Development Program's contractor to work with the Ministry of Oil to draft a capacity development plan.

USAID/Iraq implement a plan to increase the response rate for surveys so as to provide valid results in measuring outcome measures.

USAID/Iraq add an output indicator to the Program's performance management plan to measure the number of graduate level scholarships utilized abroad.