The U.S. Agency for International Development has shifted from conducting its own activities to managing contracts and grants that it awards to implementing organizations, but it lacks the capacity to develop and implement a strategic workforce plan, GAO told the House government management subcommittee recently.
It said USAID is missing sufficiently reliable and up-to-date data on its overseas staff levels and comprehensive information on the competencies of its overseas staff in regard to these contracting — or "acquisition and assistance" — instruments.
From fiscal 2002 — 2008 USAID’s A&A obligations increased from about $5 billion to $11 billion. However, data on the numbers of the overseas A&A specialists who manage much of that money collected by two USAID offices were unreliable or out of date, according to GAO-09-607T.
It said that significant discrepancies exist between data provided by two USAID offices on A&A staff levels. The offices acknowledged their information is not reliable and that they have not collected comprehensive competency information on its overseas A&A specialists.
Overseas A&A staff report difficultly adjusting staffing patterns to workloads, and USAID’s efforts to address A&A workforce issues do not constitute a strategic A&A workforce plan that takes into account the entire A&A workforce, GAO said.
It said in fiscal 2007, the Evaluation Division in the Office of Acquisition and Assistance, which has about 10 people in it, developed an evaluation mechanism that combines scorecard evaluations in which COs self-assess their A&A operations, with onsite visits by division staff.
The division completed scorecard evaluations at four missions and identified weaknesses in A&A operations. However, according to agency officials, the division did not have the staff level needed to fully implement this evaluation mechanism.
USAID officials told GAO that OAA has not fully implemented the evaluation mechanism due to other priorities. As a result, USAID cannot certify the adequacy and effectiveness of management controls for the A&A function, GAO said.
