Project assistance completion report : project design and implementation fund (391-0470)

An amendment authorized direct grants to a number of NGOs and PVOs. The project provided USAID/P with a flexible, cost-efficient, mechanism for financing design and implementation activities and technical support to other portfolio projects; USAID/P made very effective and appropriate use of the funds. The mechanism permitted a relatively rapid start-up of an essentially new program and quick movement to a high level of obligations. Activities financed included: 59 project design-related activities, including the design of 27 huge and complex portfolio projects; about 60 and cross-sectoral studies; hiring of short- and long-term contract personnel to assist USAID staff in handling design, contracting, and procurement activities; about 46 implementation activities, including support to the Narcotics Awareness Program; and provision of computers and other office equipment, as well as local consultants, to various GOP departments. Due to the closure of the Mission, project resources were most recently used for close-out activities and bridge-funding. In addition, grants were provided to NGOs for community-based and institutional development activities such as the training institute for Karachi "katchi abadies" (low-income settlements), a working women's hostel in Lahore, construction of a judicial academy in Islamabad, purchase of a helicopter for use as an air ambulance in Karachi, and provision of computers and training for the Senate, National Assembly, and four provincial assemblies. It is expected that many of the NGO projects will provide sustainable benefits. The following lessons were learned. (1) The requirement that USAID submit a request for concurrence to the GOP counterpart agency, the Economic Affairs Division (EAD), on each planned use of funds proved very time consuming. The labyrinthine line of command common to GOP bureaucracies, coupled with outright lethargy at the EAD, meant that approvals normally took 3-4 months, and sometimes took longer than the duration of the planned activity. (2) End use checks of commodities such as the office equipment provided to GOP entities should have been carried out soon after they were delivered and installed; the checks were conducted 3-4 years after delivery, by which time it was nearly impossible to accurately account for their disposition. (3) Disbursement of the entire amount of a grant as an "advance" to a NGO grantee should be avoided; it is only by withholding part of the grant that USAID maintains any leverage. (4) Better coordination with the technical offices using project funds would have resulted in much better monitoring of the completion of planned activities.