In commenting on our recommendation to the Secretary of State, State agreed that it should continue to improve the coordination of
nationalization efforts among Defense, other executive branch agencies, and the government of Colombia. State noted that its annual multiyear strategy report (which it first provided to Congress in 2006) offers the most useful format to address our recommendation. While State’s annual report is useful, it does not incorporate and rationalize the complex mix of agency programs, funding plans and schedules, differing agency goals, and varying timetables for nationalization as we recommend. State did not address how it intends to address these more detailed elements with Defense, Justice, and USAID. We continue to believe that an integrated plan addressing these elements would benefit the interagency and the Congress alike, as future assistance for Colombia is considered.
In commenting on our recommendation to the Administrator of USAID, USAID stated that the measures it has are sufficient to gauge progress towards its strategic goals. However, USAID went on to say that better measures/indicators to assess alternative development projects could be developed. The USAID mission in Colombia noted that it is working with the USAID missions in Bolivia and Peru, which also manage alternative
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The Department of Homeland Security concluded our report did not deal with any programs or projects under its control. As a result, they offered no comments on the report’s contents, findings, or recommendations.
development programs, to identify new indicators to help measure progress. The USAID/Colombia mission also stated that
USAID/Washington should lead an effort, in conjunction with the field and other interested agencies, to develop common indicators that would
enhance USAID’s ability to measure alternative development performance. We concur. In making our recommendation, we concluded that USAID’s measures were largely output indicators that did not directly address reducing illicit drug activities or the long-term sustainability of USAID’s efforts. An overall review such as USAID/Colombia suggests may help address this shortcoming.
ONDCP and State commented that our draft report left the impression that little or no progress had been made with regards to Plan Colombia’s counternarcotics goal. In response, we modified the report title and specific references in the report to better reflect that some progress was made; primarily, opium poppy cultivation and heroin production were reduced by about 50 percent. However, coca cultivation and cocaine production have been the focus of Colombian and U.S. drug reduction efforts since 2000. Neither was reduced; rather, both coca cultivation and cocaine production rose from 2000 to 2006. However, at ONDCP’s
suggestion, we added current information that suggests cocaine
productivity (cocaine yield per hectare of coca) in Colombia has declined in recent years.
Finally, ONDCP also commented that the report did not adequately
address the full range of program goals associated with Plan Colombia and the progress made towards achieving these goals. We disagree. In
characterizing and summarizing Plan Colombia’s goals and U.S. programs, we reviewed reports prepared by State as well as our prior reports, and discussed the goals and associated programs with U.S. officials both in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, and with numerous government of Colombia officials. We addressed U.S. assistance provided for nine specific Colombian military and National Police programs to increase their operational capacity, as well as numerous State, Justice, and USAID efforts to promote social and economic justice, including
alternative development, and to promote the rule of law, including judicial reform and capacity building. We also note that State, USAID, and Defense did not raise similar concerns.
As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents of this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days from the report date. At that time, we will send copies of this report to interested congressional committees; the Secretaries of Defense and State; the Attorney General; the Director of Foreign Assistance and USAID Administrator; and the Director of ONDCP. We will also make copies available to others upon request. In addition, this report will be available at no charge on the GAO web site at http://www.gao.gov.
If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact me at (202) 512-4268 or [email protected]. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report.
Sincerely yours,
Jess T. Ford, Director
We examined U.S. assistance efforts since 2000 when funding for Plan Colombia was first approved. Specifically, we examined (1) the progress made toward Plan Colombia’s drug reduction and enhanced security objectives; (2) program support provided to the Colombian military and National Police, including specific results and related challenges; (3) nonmilitary program support provided to Colombia, including specific results and related challenges; and (4) the status of U.S. and Colombian efforts to nationalize U.S. assistance and the challenges, if any, these efforts face.
To address the progress made toward Plan Colombia’s drug reduction and