Foreign Assistance

The Agency for International Development (AID) has serious and long-standing accountability and control problems that make its programs needlessly vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse. Some problems appear to be systemic, including limitations on AID's ability to monitor decentralized field operations, the lack of standard accountability requirements for overseas missions, and weaknesses in financial and information management systems. Although AID is trying to correct many of these problems, much more needs to be done. AID still lacks a clearly articulated strategic direction shared by Congress, the executive branch, and other key groups. As a result, the agency's efforts to reorganize, focus its program, plan for future work force needs, measure program performance, and implement major changes in financial and management information systems may not be complementary. Establishing and following a strategic management process should enable AID to develop an agencywide direction, select effective management strategies to achieve this direction, address critical issues, assign accountability, and monitor feedback.