Audit of Thailand"s science and technology for development project no. 493-0340

The audit covers the period 8/85-3/90. The project has helped establish a Science and Technology Development Board (STDB), awarded 189 graduate fellowships, financed several research, development, and engineering (RD&E) subprojects, and sponsored related workshops and meetings. Overall, however, implementation has been slow and project objectives may not be fully achieved because of errors in project planning and design. To date, only $8.1 million of the $30.6 million obligated has been expended. Many of the project"s problems stem from poor monitoring and oversight by the Mission. For example, although S&T policy reviews planned for FY"s 1989 and 1990 have not been initiated, USAID/T has neither identified the cause of the delay nor taken remedial action. Also, project officials were not aware until a year after awarding the initial loans for company-directed RD&E subprojects that the slow start-up of these subprojects was due to bank policies requiring real estate as collateral. Only then was a substitute program recommended. The project has also suffered from a lack of qualified people to carry out some activities. For example, only 4 of 10 targeted policy studies have been conducted due a lack of local consultants. After almost 5 years, only 65 of the 126 targeted RD&E subprojects have been approved. While targets for 48 designated and 60 competitive subprojects may be reached, the same is not likely regarding the target of 18 company-directed subprojects, with only 3 financed so far. Also, funds for RD&E subprojects may not be fully utilized since the subprojects are requiring less A.I.D. funding than planned. In 3/89, an experimental program to demonstrate appropriate technology was included as an RD&E activity; however, none of the 9 subprojects scheduled for this program for FY"s 1989-1990 have been implemented due to a lack of interest among Thai businesspersons, who can complete most subprojects more quickly than it takes to have them approved by the project. All activities in the industrial development support component are behind schedule, including Standards, Testing, and Quality Control; the Technical Information Access Center (the Project Paper plan for which duplicated an existing service); and the Diagnostic/Research Design Service. In other areas, the project monitoring and reporting system does not ensure that commodity procurement complies with A.I.D. regulations on source and origin or that commodities are properly marked. Moreover, financial activities have not been routinely reviewed to determine whether A.I.D. funds are properly accounted for. Host country and private sector contributions may not equal the amounts agreed. Furthermore, private sector contributions have not been monitored.