USAID to Post “Reports to Congress” on Agency Website

By Chris O’Donnell, February 11, 2015. On December 16, 2014 the President signed into law the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act 2015, which includes language on development priorities (regions, countries and programs), directives and reports. Section 413(a) provides directives on reports to Congress. Any agency receiving funds, shall post on the public website of that agency any report required to be submitted by the Congress in this or any other Act. There are two exceptions: if posting of the report compromises national security or the report contains proprietary information.  The head of the agency shall do so only after the report has been made available to Congress for no less than 45 days. 

This requirement reaches across government, yet there are some reports that can assist organizations in their new business strategy. While Congress authorized exception to competition for local entities in Section 7028(a) and requirements to do so; it came with reporting. The Administrator of USAID shall report, on a semi-annual basis all awards subject to limited or no competition for local entities, awards in excess of $3.0 million and sole source awards in excess of $2.0 million.     

The second report is covered in Section 7031(a) Limitation on Direct Government-to-Government Assistance. As mentioned in the July 13, 2014 Recent News article, the House Appropriation Committee clearly communicated a dislike for government-to-government assistance provided by USAID.  The appropriations act left unchanged significant requirements prior to providing assistance.  After assistance, the USAID Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Appropriations a report that details all assistance provided during the previous 6-month period by country, funding amount, source of funds and type of assistance and the type of procurement instrument or mechanism utilized and whether the assistance was provided on a reimbursement basis as required by the Act. 

The third report, the Unobligated Balance Report, is covered in Section 7002. Any department or agency of the USG to which funds are appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act shall provide to the Committees on Appropriations a quarterly accounting of cumulative unobligated balances and obligated, but unexpended, balances by program, project, and activity, and Treasury Account Fund Symbol of all funds received by a department or agency in fiscal year 2015 or any previous fiscal year, disaggregated by fiscal year; provided, that the report required by this section should specify by account the amount of funds obligated pursuant to bilateral agreements which have not been further sub-obligated.