Foreign Aid

Impact of Overseas Private Investment Corporation Activities on U.S. Employment Gao ID: NSIAD-87-109 May 5, 1987

In compliance with a legislative requirement, GAO determined the impact of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation's (OPIC) activities on employment in the United States.

GAO found that OPIC: (1) approved projects that it should have expected would have negative impacts on U.S. trade and potentially negative impacts on U.S. employment; (2) continued to assist some projects despite their negative impacts on trade and employment; (3) did not ensure that its procedures provided adequate project screening and monitoring to prevent significant adverse effects from OPIC-assisted investments; (4) used a methodology for computing the economic impact of its projects that led to overly optimistic reports to Congress concerning direct economic benefits; (5) did not routinely consult such organizations as labor unions and trade associations before approving projects; (6) did not adequately document job loss data when it evaluated proposed projects and monitored ongoing projects; and (7) has not determined the appropriateness of and circumstances for discontinuing assistance to projects whose operations have adverse effects on the U.S. economy.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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