Foreign Assistance

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed fiscal year 1984 foreign assistance program outlays to determine how funds were actually spent and who benefited from the program.

GAO found that: (1) the Agency for International Development (AID) disbursed significant portions of its assistance funds in the United States to a variety of entities, which directly benefited the U.S. economy, the recipient organizations, and the recipient countries involved; (2) AID paid over 75 percent of its disbursements in 9 states and the District of Columbia; (3) the Export-Import Bank paid almost all of its disbursements to U.S. suppliers of materials and services; (4) the World Bank and other multilateral development banks procured less than 10 percent of their goods and services from U.S. sources; (5) the United Nations (UN) Development Program paid about 23 percent of its disbursements to U.S. suppliers; and (6) the UN Children's Fund expended about $47.9 million in the United States, compared to the $53 million in voluntary contributions it collected in the United States. GAO also found that: (1) it could not identify funding sources for foreign military sales (FMS) contractor payments because FMS loan and Military Assistance Program funds are commingled in individual trust funds for each recipient nation; (2) companies in 10 states received about 84.1 percent of FMS contract awards; and (3) the top 10 FMS contractors received about 59 percent of FMS contract awards.