Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how the Agency for International Development (AID) handled the procurement of transportation services for emergency food shipments of rice to Mali and sorghum to Niger.
GAO found that: (1) AID selected the lowest bid that was responsive to the delivery date requirement for transporting the Mali shipment; (2) the modifications that AID made to the Mali contract to extend coverage to five inland destinations did not void the contract's delivery date and penalty provisions; (3) the contractor delivered the shipments on time at three of the five destinations; (4) AID assessed an $85,000 penalty on the shipping contractor, since a preexisting dispute between the contractor and a local subcontractor delayed shipment to one destination, but did not assess a penalty for a delayed shipment to the fifth destination because of unexpected weather conditions; and (5) AID shifted half of the Niger food shipment to another port because of concerns over safety and potential diversion of the commodities, resulting in $760,000 in additional costs to the U.S. government.
