Audit of USAID/Dominican Republic"s population activities

Audit covers the period 10/93-9/95. As of 9/95, obligations and expenditures totaled $12.5 million and $5.8 million, respectively. The audit showed that USAID/DR needed to improve its system for gathering and reporting information on progress and impact towards achieving its strategic objective for population. USAID managers did not annually compile data to assess performance at the level of program outcome or strategic objective -- information required annually by USAID directives to ensure effective program management. As a result, performance data related to the strategic objective for population activities was not available for audit verification. The volume of family planning services provided through the project does indicate progress impacting the strategic objective; however, the degree of progress cannot be determined until USAID/DR strengthens its monitoring system. USAID/DR made substantial progress toward achieving the output targets specified in the Project Paper. Of the five performance measures reviewed, the project exceeded targets established for two of the measures and generally met two others -- but fell significantly short on the fifth. In the latter case, the largest subgrantee showed increasing difficulty in meeting targeted levels of family planning services as measured by the number of contraceptive methods distributed, and overall the project fell 21% short of planned output levels for contraceptive distribution. Additionally, USAID/DR could improve its monitoring and reporting of project results by establishing written definitions for output targets and ensuring improved reliability of one subgrantee"s reporting system. (Author abstract)