Audit of the support to primary education project in Cameroon -- project no. 631-0033

graduate training for 15 Cameroonians. Audit covers the period 3/84-4/89. Five years after project initiation, no TTC"s had been expanded or equipped and no Cameroonians had received long-term training. Only the TA component had received funding and appeared to have achieved some success. Of $27.6 million authorized, only about $7.9 million had been spent, primarily for expatriate salaries and support. The construction and long-term training components never got underway because of the Governent of Cameroon"s (GOC"s) inability to fulfill certain project agreement conditions and because of procedural differences between the GOC and the Mission. During the last year of the project, the Mission attempted to convince the GOC that the construction component would need to be redesigned due to inordinate delays. However, the GOC insisted that construction be carried out as agreed, and even retaliated by suspending the TA component for 5 months. Over $320,000 in A.I.D. funds related to proposed construction and library activities were spent without practical results. An external evaluation might have been the catalyst needed to elevate the procedural difficulties blocking construction and participant training to a higher level of decisionmaking. Upon recommendation of the Regional Inspector General, the Mission terminated the project in 1/89. Due to a contracting error which the Mission had long been aware of but failed to correct, the TA contract had an estimated completion date well beyond the project ending date. As a result, the Mission has been billed for 5 months of services it has not received. A minimum of $52,310 of these funds are unreasonable and should be questioned. Moreover, $29,150 was allocated to the TA contractor for unallowable costs and should be recovered.