Pursuit's Take
The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program (MGD Program) provides donations of U.S. agricultural products and financial and technical assistance for school feeding programs in the developing world. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), with about $200 million in funding in fiscal year 2010, the MGD Program served about 5 million beneficiaries in 28 countries.
USDA provides weak performance monitoring of the MGD Program’s implementation. For example, USDA does not systematically analyze implementing partners’ reporting and provides limited feedback.
USDA has controls in place over project expenditures, but a lack of timely grant closeouts prevents USDA from ensuring that grantees have met all financial requirements and that unused or misused funds are promptly reimbursed to USDA. To date, USDA has collected over $850,000 in unused or misused funds via grant closeouts; however, 15 of 42 (36 percent) of the MGD grants that are eligible to be closed, remain open.
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