Summary: The Agency for International Development's (AID) project implementation process has slowed down during recent years. In addition, the age of obligated undisbursed funds, referred to as the pipeline, has increased from about $1.5 billion to about $5 billion over the last 6 years. The significant pipeline buildup occurs because of the AID tendency to overemphasize activities which deal with planning, designing, and starting new projects. As a result, the emphasis on delivering assistance to recipient countries is lessened. Another major factor which slows project implementation and increases the overall AID pipeline is a recipient government's lack of management and technical resources to plan and provide support for AID-sponsored projects. Further, many contracting weaknesses hamper project implementation and the delivery of assistance. Inappropriate or questionable practices have occurred during contract negotiations and awards, and AID technical personnel have been too involved in the procurement process. The extensive use of noncompetitive contracting exceptions is seldom challenged by officials at agency review levels. AID policy is that recipient countries undertake the implementation of development assistance projects to the maximum extent possible. Since this does not reduce AID responsibility to assure the efficient use of its resources, AID project managers retain the responsibility to monitor the implementation of these projects to assure that goods and services are efficiently delivered on time. Long delays in providing guidance to responsible project officers is one cause of poor monitoring. AID has not yet issued complete monitoring guidelines which have been under consideration since 1975. Staffing problems, both in Washington and overseas, are of great concern to management. AID is reviewing many personnel matters, including the size of mission staffs, the objective criteria for staffing decisions, in-house staff training, the need for technical skills, and the assignment of foreign service personnel to Washington. GAO believes that AID should also focus on interagency service agreements, personnel services contracts, and contracts with private firms. GAO believes that some encouraging progress is being made to improve the substance and administration of the foreign assistance program and that the managers in AID are aware of the challenges they face.
