Drug Control

U.S. Supported Efforts in Burma, Pakistan, and Thailand Gao ID: NSIAD-88-94 February 26, 1988

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO evaluated the Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics Matters' (INM), the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA), and the Agency for International Development's (AID) narcotics control efforts in Burma, Thailand, and Pakistan, focusing on: (1) financial and technical assistance for crop control; (2) law enforcement activities; and (3) development assistance.

GAO found that: (1) although Burma, Pakistan, and Thailand increased eradication of opium poppy crops, only Thailand had a consistent decline over the last four growing seasons; (2) all three countries have had problems with narcotics-related corruption; (3) Thailand and Pakistan have weak narcotics laws; (4) poorly managed crop-control programs made it difficult to measure progress in all three countries; and (5) opium production reductions in Pakistan and Thailand will depend on the success of rural development projects. GAO also found that: (1) INM often lacked quantifiable project goals and frequently reported inaccurate cultivation, yield, and eradication data; (2) INM provided development assistance through U.S. embassies' narcotics assistance units (NAU) to farmers to discourage opium cultivation; (3) AID spent about $9.4 million on narcotics control development assistance in Pakistan and Thailand in fiscal year 1987; (4) AID had no projects in Burma, since the Burmese government preferred dealing with a single agency rather than multiple foreign agencies; and (5) AID did not coordinate its narcotics control efforts with those of INM or NAU.

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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