Audit of the USAID/Egypt"s democracy activities

The auditors found that USAID/Egypt has developed a strategic and an annual plan for its democracy activities consistent with the Agency"s strategic framework. The mission also developed a system for collecting and reporting accurate performance information, and has used such information to enhance program effectiveness. However, the auditors reported that the mission needs to clearly state in its strategic plan what objective it hopes to achieve by supporting the Participatory Rural Governance Program and develop better performance indicators for its democracy activities. The report recommends that USAID/Egypt: (1) propose to the Asia Near East Bureau (ANE) a reclassification of its intermediate result "incremental devolution of authorities to the local level" under an SO that more clearly articulates why the mission is supporting the Participatory Rural Governance Program; and (2) establish performance indicators for its democracy activities which are direct, objective, practical and unidimensional. The Mission agreed with the recommendations and has implemented the first recommendation and developed a plan to address the second recommendation. (Author abstract)