Audit of Peace Corps/Management of Grants for Volunteer Projects

We recommend that the Office of the Director clearly define and communicate Peace Corps’ overarching strategy on the use of grants and that posts use this information as guidance to develop their post grants strategy.

We recommend that the Office of Global Operations, in coordination with the Office of Strategic Partnerships and the Office of Global Health and HIV require that posts incorporate into their strategic plan the post’s grants strategy and management plan, including resources that may be needed.

We recommend that the Office of Strategic Partnerships conduct an assessment to understand the prevalence of outside grants, identify funding sources that should be discontinued, and to gain more clarity on why Volunteers pursue outside grants.

We recommend that the Office of Strategic Partnerships based on the assessment of outside grants, in coordination with the Office of Global Operations, define and communicate the Peace Corps’ policy on outside grants, to include appropriate Volunteer and staff roles, and develop administrative procedures to ensure compliance with the policy.

We recommend that the Office of Strategic Partnerships and the Office of Global Health and HIV establish a routine process to gather more valid and reliable data on outside grants from posts and Volunteers.