INSPECTION REPORT : SELECTED ACTIVITIES OF THE OPPORTUNITIES INDUSTRIALIZATION CENTERS INTERNATIONAL

OICI has been contracted to establish vocational training centers based on the OIC approach of training the hard-core unemployed and placing them in jobs. Scope of inspection report includes OICI operations in Ghana (6410063), Nigeria (6200802), Ethiopia (6630175), Kenya (6150159), and in OICI"s central office in Philadelphia, PA (6980153). The inspection team examined documents in AID/W, OICI records in Philadelphia, and records at OIC"s in Ghana and Nigeria. After about 4 years in operation, the OIC programs in Ghana and Nigeria have not as yet attracted sufficient local financial support, either public or private, to continue after AID financing stops at the end of FY 1976 under the present contract. There are indications that a similar situation is developing in Kenya and Ethiopia, where the 3-year programs are at about midpoint and are to terminate in 2/76 under the present contract. Failure of OICI to recognize the seriousness of the local financing phaseover situation generally in all 4 countries has contributed to the lack of progress. Authors recommend that AID immediately begin phasing out those projects for which there is no firm indication of sufficient local financial support. OICI has not been filling key overseas positions on a timely basis and their short-term temporary assignments of personnel have been harmful to the program. Authors recommend that AID monitor hiring activities. The authors also found a disproportionate level of staffing in the Philadelphia office and recommend that AID review staffing. Authors take issue with Senate Foreign Relations Committee directive for major increases in OICI funding. Major expansion of program to an artificially high level of $3 million annually will tax OICI"s absorptive capacity and may lead to inappropriate expenditures. There are already indications that OICI is trying to go too far too fast in establishing new OIC"s in Africa, Latin America, and possibly Asia.