Cost, Outcome, and Oversight of Local Governance Program Contracts with Research Triangle Institute

SIGIR has a legislative requirement to prepare a final forensic audit on funds made available for Iraq relief and reconstruction prior to its termination. Based on this requirement, SIGIR has undertaken a series of focused contract reviews examining major Iraq reconstruction contracts. This report,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bowan, Kenneth, Brooks, Ed, Franzen, Walter, Gulla, Frank, Keays, Walt, Shimp, William
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Administration and Management
AUDITING
CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION
COSTS
Government and Political Science
GOVERNMENT(FOREIGN)
IRAQ
LOCAL GOVERNANCE PROGRAM
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
OUTCOMES
OVERSIGHT
PAYMENT
RECONSTRUCTION
RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE
USAID(US AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT)
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Summary:SIGIR has a legislative requirement to prepare a final forensic audit on funds made available for Iraq relief and reconstruction prior to its termination. Based on this requirement, SIGIR has undertaken a series of focused contract reviews examining major Iraq reconstruction contracts. This report, the eighth in the series of such reviews, examines two contracts for Local Governance Program (LGP) activities awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) to assist the Iraqis in creating a more favorable environment for local governance and to build the capacity of representative councils and sub national offices of central government ministries. The contracts were awarded in 2003 and 2005 and had a total value of $598,218,622, as of June 30, 2008. SIGIR's objectives were to examine contract costs, outcomes, and management oversight, emphasizing issues related to vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, and abuse. SIGIR recommends that USAID's Mission Director-Iraq take actions to improve operational guidance to facilitate contract oversight; ensure the review of payment vouchers and invoices before payments are made; and take action to recover general and administrative and fixed fees that may have been improperly paid to the contractor as allowable expenses against $185,000 in government funds lost by the contractor. In commenting on a draft of this report, USAID concurred with the report's findings and recommendations, and outlined steps it is taking to address each recommendation. USAID also provided technical comments that we have included in the report where appropriate.