Non-federal audit of the agriculture sector development grant in Niger (project no. 683-0246)

The audit covers the period 8/84-9/90. The "Secretariat," a quasi-governmental entity responsible for handling counterpart funds under the grant, performed poorly in providing these funds to agricultural projects. There were serious weaknesses in internal controls in the Secretariat accounting system, a lack of independence and integrity of the Secretariat, and inadequate financial monitoring and evaluation of the projects by the Secretariat and by USAID/N itself. Moreover, the expenditure summary was understated by $1.1 million, while $5.1 million in local currency expenditures went almost completely undocumented. The Mission is in general agreement on these findings, although officials were confident that documentation for a significant portion of the $5.1 million could be found.