Audit of Botswana workforce and skills training project no. 633-0231

Economy and efficiency audit covers the period 5/82-8/87 and is based on document review and interviews with Batswana and contractor personnel. Management of the project has been good (with one exception) and significant progress has been made toward overcoming Botswana"s skilled labor constraint. Good administrative control contributed to this outcome. The project successfully selected, placed, and monitored students, nearly all of whom completed their training and returned to Botswana to work. The project"s one flaw was its failure to utilize third-country training in African institutions, which costs only about one-seventh as much as U.S. training. Even though opportunities existed in other African countries for undergraduate and other training, all the students were sent to the United States at much greater expense. Had 15% of the placements been made in third countries, about $640,000 could have been saved, or an additional 206 person-years of third-country training could have been obtained. Third-country placements were not made because Mission officials in the past believed obstacles to utilizing third-country training were too great (although such placements have in fact been used frequently by USAID/Kenya and by a Government of Botswana scholarship program) and also because Mission and contractor officials did not understand or appreciate the relevant A.I.D. policy guidance. The contractor (the Academy for Educational Development) thought such placements were against A.I.D. policy, while the Mission believed U.S. training to be superior from both political and technological standpoints. The advantages of third-country training had, in fact, been pointed out in a mid-term evaluation of the project and in a 1981 audit of a regional predecessor project, but without effect. By utilizing third-country placements in the planned follow-on project, the Mission can save at least $1.6 million. It is recommended that the contractor for that project be required to place 15% of participants in third-country institutions, and report annually on progress toward meeting that objective.