U.S. Department of Agriculture

Status of the Food and Agriculture Councils Needs to Be Elevated Gao ID: RCED-90-29 November 20, 1989

GAO described the Food and Agriculture Councils (FAC) and reviewed ways to revitalize FAC as a strategic management tool for the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

GAO found that: (1) USDA established FAC in 1982 to facilitate the flow of USDA-wide initiatives to the state and local levels and to provide feedback on issues affecting farm communities; (2) because USDA transferred FAC out of the Office of the Secretary, the FAC Director had little or no power to foster interagency coordination; (3) reduced interest in FAC activities affected FAC abilities to provide feedback to the Secretary; (4) although some FAC-proposed projects had potential nationwide applications, headquarters was slow to follow up on the proposals; and (5) without a strong national director at headquarters, there was little incentive for state and local FAC to focus on FAC missions and objectives.

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.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.