The Professional Services Council and its Council of International Development Companies have expressed support for a common sense provision in the House Foreign Operations Appropriations bill to ensure taxpayer dollars are protected by ensuring appropriate reviews occur before limiting competition to host-country entities. The House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee approved the bill July 19. The full House Appropriations Committee will consider the bill today.
The legislation would require USAID to assess the ability of foreign NGOs and governments to effectively implement, manage, and account for programs before limiting competition to local entities. In addition, even after deciding to limit competition to local entities, USAID must determine if each successful local entity is “responsible” and has effective monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure that funding is used for its intended purposes. This is similar to the standard already imposed by the U.S. government on its American contractors.
“Absent quantifiable assurances that U.S. investments will be properly used by recipient countries to build economic capacity and improve the lives its people, the U.S. government must exercise due diligence and control over its foreign aid programs,” said PSC President and CEO Stan Soloway, in a press statement. “Using U.S. development companies can offer those assurances while also meeting the USAID goal of building local capacity through mentoring, partnering, and technical training.”
Despite its support for this provision, PSC did express significant concern about the funding levels contained in the legislation. The bill proposes a 19 percent reduction in the fiscal year 2013 discretionary funding levels and a reduction of $172 million from the fiscal year 2013 enacted level to USAID’s operating costs for development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of U.S. foreign policy goals, with more than 20 percent of those funds for USAID operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
After the vote, Soloway said, “We believe the overall funding levels of the bill are insufficient to meeting the challenges that face the United States and its international partners and hope those levels will be adjusted appropriately through the conference process. Nonetheless, we strongly support the provision in the bill that assess a recipient nation’s capacity to account for U.S. assistance to ensure American taxpayer funds will not be wasted or end up in the wrong hands.”
