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Agricultural Loan Guarantees: National Advisory Council's Critical Views on Loans to Iraq Withheld

GGD-94-24 Published: Oct 27, 1993. Publicly Released: Dec 14, 1993.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the process that the National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Policies (NAC) used to approve over $6 billion in Department of Agriculture (USDA) loans and agricultural export credit guarantee programs to Iraq, focusing on the: (1) major issues debated in NAC regarding USDA agricultural loan and credit guarantee proposals for Iraq; (2) mechanism NAC used to determine its position on USDA proposals; (3) way the NAC voting and approval process affected the outcome of NAC positions; and (4) changing role and responsibilities of NAC since 1945.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Other The Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, as head of staff of the National Economic Council, should evaluate the usefulness of the NAC interagency review process and generally assess the need for NAC. Other existing mechanisms available to the administration, such as the National Economic Council, may effectively address the issues that NAC currently reviews.
Closed – Not Implemented
This recommendation is made to an assistant to the President, rather than any agency, who is exempt from a required response.
Department of the Treasury If NAC is to remain an interagency review body, the Secretary of the Treasury, in the capacity as chair, should develop a method for conveying NAC views that includes the full range of concerns raised by the members.
Closed – Implemented
Treasury appears to have set aside GAO's recommendation by declaring that if NAC agencies are concerned about how well their views are represented, they themselves will point this out to the Treasury. This appears to be a nonresponse to GAO's recommendation, particularly because the report points out that NAC agencies' more critical views were being withheld.

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Topics

Budget and Spending
Agricultural policiesAgricultural programsEconomic policiesExportingForeign economic development creditForeign governmentsForeign loansGovernment guaranteed loansInteragency relationsInternational relations