Survey of the Economic Development Administration's Implementation of the Title IX Program

The Title IX Special Economic Development and Adjustment Assistance Program was designed to save or create jobs and stimulate the economy of depressed areas. Nationwide, communities received 243 grants totalling about $311 million through fiscal year 1978. The Economic Development Administration (EDA) has the responsibility for implementing the Title IX program, which requires that grant recipients submit an annual report for each year of assistance and that the Secretary of Commerce provide an annual consolidated report to the Congress.

The majority of grantees have not submitted progress reports annually as required by the Title IX legislation. In some instances, grantees submitted reports containing inadequate data to measure the grant's effectiveness in achieving planned goals. EDA has not made sufficient effort to collect data on the progress of Title IX grants. Further, EDA evaluation of grantee progress has been difficult because of the different reporting periods imposed on grantees. The Secretary's annual reports do not provide Congress with data on Title IX's effectiveness. The reports merely reiterate the intended purpose of the grants approved during the year. For the most part, EDA has followed the practice of not reporting on the effectiveness of prior year grants. Congress is entitled to more information on what these grants have achieved, and an annual report that includes a consolidation of properly verified grantee progress reports appears to be a logical extension of the grantee reporting system.

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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