Carlos Acedo Mendoza, Presidente, FUNDACOMUN, Chacaito, Caracas Adalberto Cubillan, Federación Compesina de Venezuela, Esquina Tienda Honda, Caracas Dr. Michael Bamberger, Director de Servicios Tecnicos, Caracas Dr. Hugo Romero, IDB Representative, Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, Caracas Dr. Luis Lander, Director, CENDES, Caracas Javier Pazos, Caracas TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Mr. Arthur L. McShine, General Manager, The South Trinidad Chamber of Industry & Commerce (Inc.), San Fernando. Mrs. Joyce Matadeen, Palmiste. Mr. Frank A. Dowdy, Chief Executive Officer, Trinidad Chamber of Commerce, Port-of-Spain. Honorable Francis C. Prevatt, Minister of Health, Ministry of Health, Port-ofSpain Mr. Jay P. Moffat, American Charge d'Affaires, Embassy of the United States of America, Port-of-Span Mr. Ronald French, Christ College, Princes Town, South Trinidad, Trinidad y Tobago, West Indies WINDWARD AND LEEWARD ISLANDS Dr. Urias Forbes, St. Johns Antigua, West Indies Dr. Peter Dalton, Rockefeller Research Center, Research and Control Department, Castries, St. Lucia, West Indies Mr. Jean Baptist, Registrar of Cooperatives, Government of St. Lucia, Castries, St. Lucia, West Indies Miss Margorie Lumsden, Central Library of St. Lucia, Castries, St. Lucia, West Indies Dr. C.A.P. St. Hill, Castries, St. Lucia, West Indies Mr. Leaton Thomas, Chief Educational Officer, Government of St. Lucia, Castries, St. Lucia, West Indies Mr. Larry Leighton, Peace Corps, Castries, St. Lucia, West Indies Mr. FASCELL. I want to get back to something Brad brought up a little earlier and that is the financial aspects of this thing. Questions are going to arise constantly, about whether you made a grant and Joe Doak took the money and departed, and there was no social development. There was only personal enrichment. Mr. DYAL. There are three pieces that we see important in terms of an on-going relationship; there are probably more: One obviously is related to the evaluation process which we would like to keep separate from monitoring of management performance which we feel can be a policing action that can destroy or pervert a project or an organization. Obviously, evaluation will provide clues to management performance but we feel it should be kept separate from monitoring. The second is a more traditional financial audit process which is understood at the time of the grant agreement; it is agreed upon in the course of our deliberations and considerations and conversations with the group. This is done under generally accepted audit specifications and relationships and is done by commercial auditing firms approved mutually by us and the grantee. In other words, we have a general list of commercial firms, not on a specific one-by-one basis. Consequently there will be a commercial audit of all substantial grants. The third piece we see is an on-going relationship with that organization by our own staff. Not in terms of a staff member arriving pe riodically to say: "We want to look at your books," or "we want to see how it is going" or "we want to talk to the people to see if you are functioning well." Hopefully we can establish a relationship of trust where clues and signals can be given as to what is happening in each project. But the two formalized processes, one evaluation of social impact and a commercial audit under normal accounting specifications. Of course, the GAO then has access to our audit as a Government corporation in general. Mr. FASCELL. We touched on this in earlier questions but I want to explore it more fully. It is extremely essential that when you have a successful project you immediately get the word out to Congress, to the Executive and to other people in the social development field, and in the academic community-particularly to people in the Congress and in the social development business. If you have discussed technique, other people ought to know about it right away. I do not know whether or not this business lends itself to the kind of punchcard operation everybody visualized as a panacea for all of man's ills, but is it possible that we could somewhere begin the concept of a computer bank in social development? Mr. DYAL. It has already begun. Mr. FASCELL. Good. Where? Mr. DYAL. It is in its early stages and there are problems to be ironed out. It is basically done in the academic community. The University of Florida and UCLA have begun approaches as have Wisconsin and Cornell. The problem is in helping them work together. in a manner which is appropriate. Many times social development information is of such an esoteric nature that it has very little to do with the reality of a community or organization somewhere at the grassroots level in Latin America. Mr. FASCELL. You are going to have to develop a common language. That is obvious and I believe that our academic community could be of great value in putting this concept together and tying in the information. I do not know that IAF can fund any part of that effort but perhaps if we could get a study on it, we could find other avenues to help fund this effort in the United States. Mr. DYAL. Interestingly enough, I think we see this as an ongoing long-term broker role with the foundation as one of the brokers obviously in the building of that kind of network. It must also be related to Latin America. You have centers of information in Latin America which are more on target. There is CLASCO in Buenos Aires, and the Collegio de Mexico in Mexico City. The OAS Group has documentation centers. There are a whole variety of them but they do not now share information in any appropriate and practical manner nor do they with the U.S. centers. They are pretty much verticalized in approach, meeting a certain clientele. I doubt that you are ever going to pull off a massive giant information retrieval process that includes all of them. However, if there could be enough inclusion and enough sharing of information that is applicable in a practical nature to organizations in Latin America and the United States, it is a worthy goal. And, we see it as one that we must be working on in that process. Mr. FASCELL. We thank you and your colleagues very much. We appreciate your reviewing with us your first year of operations and your answering the questions candidly on the record. We may have some more information that we may request from you for the record. We will also keep the record open for a while in the event that you care to add anything. With that, the subcommittee will stand adjourned. (Whereupon at 11:55 a.m. the subcommittee adjourned.) APPENDIXES APPENDIX I Foreign Assistance Act of 1969, as Amended (Partial Text of Public Law 91-175 [H.R. 14580], 83 Stat. 805, approved, December 30, 1969, as amended by Public Law 92-226 [Foreign Assistance Act of 1971; S. 2819], 86 Stat. 20, 34, approved February 7, 1972.) PART IV-THE INTER-AMERICAN FOUNDATION ACT SEC. 401.1 INTER-AMERICAN FOUNDATION.-(a) There is created as an agency of the United States of America a body corporate to be known as the Inter-American Foundation (hereinafter in this section referred to as the "Foundation"). (b) The future of freedom, security, and economic development in the Western Hemisphere rests on the realization that man is the foundation of all human progress. It is the purpose of this section to provide support for developmental activities designed to achieve conditions in the Western Hemisphere under which the dignity and the worth of each human person will be respected and under which all men will be afforded the opportunity to develop their potential, to seek through gainful and productive work the fulfillment of their aspirations for a better life, and to live in justice and peace. To this end, it shall be the purpose of the Foundation, primarily in cooperation with private, regional, and international organizations, to (1) strengthen the bonds of friendship and understanding among the peoples of this hemisphere; (2) support self-help efforts designed to enlarge the opportunities for individual development; (3) stimulate and assist effective and ever wider participation of the people in the development process; (4) encourage the establishment and growth of democratic institutions, private and governmental, appropriate to the requirements of the individual sovereign nations of this hemisphere. In pursuing these purposes, the Foundation shall place primary emphasis on the enlargement of educational opportunities at all levels, the production of food and the development of agriculture, and the improvement of environmental conditions relating to health, material and child care, family planning, housing, free trade union development, and other social and economic needs of the people. (c) The Foundation shall carry out the purposes set forth in subsection (b) of this section primarily through and with private organizations, individuals, and international organizations by undertaking or sponsoring appropriate research and by planning, initiating, assisting, financing, administering, and executing programs and projects designed to promote the achievement of such purposes. (d) In carrying out its functions under this section, the Foundation shall, to the maximum extent possible, coordinate its undertakings with the developmental activities in the Western Hemisphere of the various organs of the Organization of American States, the United States Government, international organizations, and other entities engaged in promoting social and economic development of Latin America. 1 22 U.S.C. § 290f. NOTE. Except for Part IV, which relates to the Inter-American Social Development Institute (title changed to The Inter-American Foundation Act by Sec. 406(1) of the FAAct of 1971), and Part V, which relates to amendments to other acts, The Foreign Assistance Act of 1969 consists of amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended. (63) |