USAID/Tanzania PL-480 Title I program

480 Title I program in Tanzania. Evaluation, for which no time-frame is indicated, consists of a limited audit of the program. For 5 years, the Government of Tanzania (GOT) has not regularly provided either the annual reports on specific self-help activities -- needed by AID/W by 12/15 of each year to meet the deadline for the President"s annual Food for Peace report to Congress and by USAID/T to evaluate host-country implementation of self-help activities -- or the annual reports, certified by the appropriate GOT audit authority, on receipts and expenditures by sector. The problem is especially pressing in view of the strong consideration being given to beginning a Title III program in Tanzania next year. Because USAID/T has informed GOT of the need to meet self-help report deadlines and because a newly organized Proceeds Committee has established procedures to satisfy the requirement for a certified financial report, the recommendation of the draft audit on these points was withdrawn. The auditors also judged that USAID/T needed a systematic monitoring program, including onsite specifications and progress reports placed in official USAID/T files, to ensure that GOT is using local currency generated through Title I sales for self-help and other development activities. USAID/T responded that the Proceeds Committee has established rigid onsite inspection requirements and has assigned monitoring responsibilities to its staff members. Therefore, an earlier recommendation has also been withdrawn. Tanzania shows all the signs of having an overburdened absorptive capacity--slow implementation of development projects, an inability to meet commitments, and an insufficient budget. USAID/T replied that part of its development strategy is to improve GOT"s absorptive capacity. Nonetheless, the current Title I program appears to strain existing GOT difficulties in meeting donor requirements; the increasingly stringent requirements of the current P.L. 480 Title I or of the proposed Title III program will exacerbate these difficulties. USAID/T should keep these points in mind when planning future food developmental programs.