Search for Options in the Troubled Food-for-Peace Program in Zaire

In 1976, because of a serious deterioration in the Zaire economy, the United States increased its food assistance to that country. The principal vehicle for this assistance was two programs under the Agricultural Trade Development Assistance Act of 1954. Title I of the Act provided for the concessional sale of agricultural commodities, while Title II authorized food donations to meet famine and other urgent requirements. There have been serious problems in controlling and monitoring the receipt and distribution of rice and in controlling the receipt and disbursement of Zaire local currency generated by the sale of the U.S.-provided commodities. This has placed an unprecented burden on the U.S. Embasssy and Agency for International Development (AID) mission in Zaire. The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa asked GAO to review the distribution of rice and other related matters in 1979.