Management Challenges Identified by GAO
Management Challenge/
Significant Issue |
Actions Taken in
FY 2006 |
Actions Remaining and/or
Expected Completion Date |
| To better facilitate USAID’s ability to design and implement future disaster recovery programs and address its previously documented recurring staffing challenges, GAO recommends revising staffing procedures to allow the Agency to more quickly reassign or hire key personnel, either to augment staff responsible for disaster recovery efforts in countries with a USAID mission or to manage efforts in countries where USAID does not maintain a permanent presence. |
The Agency has developed a crisis management model that utilizes task forces composed of USAID and other key USG department and agency personnel to provide an effective, integrated platform for complex emergency and stabilization responses. |
USAID has proposed the development of a “civilian surge capacity” which, if approved and funded, would give USAID over a three-year time period the ability to grow short-to-long-term staff on an as needed basis.
Target completion date: September 30, 2008. |
| GAO recommends USAID develop disaster recovery and reconstruction program guidance that incorporates lessons learned from the Hurricane Ivan Recovery and Reconstruction Program and Tropical Storm Jeanne Recovery Program as well as previous disaster recovery programs. |
USAID has established an agency task force for complex emergency and stabilization responses. The Agency Task Force model has been activated twice – once for the Tsunami and again for the Pakistan Earthquake. An example of lessons learned, generated by the Tsunami Task Force, is available on the USAID intranet and can be found at http://inside.usaid.gov/ tsunami/lessons.html. |
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| To assist contractors operating in hostile environments to obtain security services required to ensure successful contract execution, GAO recommends that USAID explore options that would enable contractors to obtain such services quickly and efficiently. |
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USAID is in the final stages of developing Agency guidance with respect to the security challenges of its implementing partners. USAID has implemented a variety of initiatives to address the security concerns as well as to help identify security needs and requirements. Target completion date: September 30, 2008. |
| To improve the ability to assess the impact of and manage security costs in future reconstruction efforts, GAO recommends that USAID establish a means to track and account for security costs to develop more accurate budget estimates. |
One of the challenges of tracking security costs pertains to the difficulty in identifying a standard definition. USAID has developed a standard definition of security costs which will be applied to all new contracts and agreements. This will result in more accurate reporting of security costs. USAID/Iraq is also adding a security cost field into a prototype of its new management reporting system to allow USAID to analyze and better report security costs. Action complete. |
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To improve on existing efforts to measure and assess the progress of U.S. reconstruction projects toward achieving U.S. policy goals, and to provide a basis for planning future reconstruction projects, GAO recommends that USAID:
(1) establish a performance management plan that complies with USAID directives,
(2) clearly stipulate in all future reconstruction contracts that contractors are to develop performance management plans specific to the work they are conducting, and
(3) more completely communicate the performance information obtained from the performance management plans to executive branch decision makers in Kabul and Washington. |
(1) USAID/Afghanistan prepared a Performance Management Plan (PMP). The preliminary performance indicators for each of the approved strategic objectives and related intermediate results, along with the preliminary baselines and targets were provided in the Mission’s strategic plan. In an effort to streamline data collection, contracts and grants now require awardees to provide quarterly activity updates by entering this data into the Mission’s web-based database system. This periodic reporting will facilitate measurement under the PMP.
(2) USAID requires contractors to enter their program information into the web-based database. All future reconstruction contracts will require contractors to develop performance management plans linking their work to the Mission’s PMP.
(3) The results of USAID/Afghanistan’s most visible projects are closely tracked. These “metrics” are now being updated by an interagency team in Kabul. Actions complete. |
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