Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Peace Corps' budget, volunteers and trainees, and areas of operations.
GAO found that: (1) the Peace Corps budget has increased steadily since 1972 after 5 years of decreases; (2) Peace Corps appropriations for fiscal year (FY) 1988 totalled $146.2 million, and estimated appropriations for FY 1989 totalled $153.5 million; (3) the Corps has increased its budget obligations for its Africa region to 48.4 percent of all of its obligations, while decreasing obligations for the Inter-America and North Africa, Near East, Asia and Pacific region; (4) at the end of FY 1988, the Corps had 5,909 volunteers and trainees, with about 42.7 percent serving in the Africa region, 33.1 percent in the Inter-America region, and 24.2 percent in the North Africa, Near East, Asia and Pacific region; (5) the rate of early terminations has decreased to about 33 percent for those volunteers who entered service after 1980; and (6) volunteers had a wide variety of educational backgrounds and skills, but the number of volunteers with generalist backgrounds decreased after 1970.
