Audit of USAID/Bangladesh"s Title II non-emergency food aid program

The audit covered the period 9/93-6/96. USAID/B and its cooperating agent, CARE, have established an adequate management system to ensure that food aid reaches intended beneficiaries -- laborers and their families, who work to improve rural roads. Also, the local currency derived from the monetization of wheat under the program is deposited in an interest-bearing account and used for authorized purposes. However, it was impossible to determine progress toward intended results because of delays in obtaining the socioeconomic data, such as increases in agricultural productivity, rural household income, and household nutrition, needed to measure program impact. On the positive side, despite a year"s delay, USAID/B and CARE have made progress in developing a monitoring system for measuring actual against anticipated results. Baseline data are being developed and plans have been made for periodic surveys to measure progress. As of 12/31/95, CARE had reported short-term benefits under the program; these included generating employment for 513,258 laborers and their dependents and making 1,622 miles of rural roads environmentally sound and passable; however, Mission officials could not adequately explain how these figures were calculated. Finally, the audit found that USAID/B could improve the impact of the Title II program on achieving the Mission"s Strategic Objectives through improved progress reporting, better integration of results into the Results Review and Resources Report (R4), and a stronger focus on sustainability of benefits expected under the program. Mission officials generally agreed with the report"s findings and recommendations. (Author abstract, modified)