U.S. agencies primarily use Leahy vetting as the enforcement mechanism to prevent U.S. funding for combating wildlife trafficking from supporting human rights abuses. Statutory provisions commonly referred to as "Leahy Laws" prohibit the U.S. government from using certain funds to assist units of foreign security forces where there is credible information they have committed a gross violation of

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosure rule broadly requires that certain companies submit a filing that describes their efforts to conduct a reasonable country-of-origin inquiry (RCOI), and depending on the preliminary determination, perform due diligence to determine the source and chain of custody of their conflict minerals—gold and specific ores for tantalum, tin, and tungs

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided at least $810 million to directly and indirectly support climate adaptation from fiscal years 2014 through 2018—the latest available data at the time of GAO's analysis. However, USAID ended new funding for programming activities that directly address climate adaptation (i.e., direct funding) in fiscal year 2017 in part due to a shif

The overall proportion of racial or ethnic minorities in the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) full-time, permanent, career workforce increased from 33 to 37 percent from fiscal year 2002 to fiscal year 2018. The direction of change for specific groups varied. For instance, the proportion of Hispanics rose from 3 to 6 percent, while the proportion of African Americans fell from

The Department of State (State) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) allocated more than $2.7 billion for rule of law assistance from fiscal years 2014 through 2018—the latest available data as of GAO's review. Of that, State allocated over $2 billion and USAID allocated over $700 million. State and USAID funded some of these programs through the Department of Justice (DOJ)

For the 15 Department of State (State) Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (State/INL) projects GAO reviewed, State/INL generally followed key monitoring practices about half of the time. For example, State/INL almost always assigned staff with appropriate qualifications to monitor Mérida Initiative projects. However, for most projects, State/INL did not generally follo

La Oficina Internacional de Asuntos Antinarcóticos y Procuración de Justicia (INL, por sus siglas en inglés) del Departamento de Estado (State, por su nombre en inglés) generalmente siguió las prácticas clave de monitoreo casi la mitad del tiempo en los 15 proyectos que analizó la GAO. Por ejemplo, State/INL casi siempre asignó a personal con las calificaciones adecuadas para monitorear l

From fiscal years 2013 through 2018, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) increased its reliance on contracts for services, particularly those in categories that may need heightened management attention, such as drafting policy documents. These services include functions that are closely associated with inherently governmental, critical, or special interest, which could put the government at

During calendar year 2018, GAO made a combined 51 recommendations to State and USAID. Of the 36 recommendations made to State, 11 (31 percent) were still open as of April 2020, two of which are priority recommendations. Priority recommendations are those that GAO believes warrant priority attention from heads of key departments and agencies. Of the 15 recommendations made to USAID, two (13 percen

Priority open recommendations are the GAO recommendations that warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies because their implementation could save large amounts of money; improve congressional and/or executive branch decision making on major issues; eliminate mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or ensure that programs comply with laws and funds are legally spent, among other