Promoting Democracy

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Endowment for Democracy’s procedures for selecting, monitoring, and evaluating its grantee programs. GAO found that the Endowment: (1) relied on its grantees to select, monitor, and evaluate their own programs in 1984 and 1985; (2) did not implement a comprehensive planning process or develop an overall plan reflecting its priorities in terms of geographic areas or project types, thereby limiting its selection process to funding projects that its grantees developed and submitted; (3) did little independent verification of financial and other program information; and (4) evaluated only a few projects during the first 2 years of operation, since they were the only projects that were completed by then. GAO noted that in March 1986, the Endowment approved a policy statement clarifying its responsibilities for oversight of appropriated funds and defining its relationship with grantees.