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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Commodity Purchase Services (Section 32)

USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service administers this program which is funded from a percentage of customs duties collected. It was created to stabilize the market for agricultural commodities by encouraging export and domestic consumption of commodities and to reestablish purchasing power through payments to farmers.

Rating

What This Rating Means

NOT PERFORMING
Results Not Demonstrated

A rating of Results Not Demonstrated (RND) indicates that a program has not been able to develop acceptable performance goals or collect data to determine whether it is performing.
  • The Section 32 program has three purposes, but it lacks goals and measures in support of any of these underlying purposes.
  • The program lacks evidence of a design or methodology for determining diversion, normal channels of trade or commerce, or normal production for domestic consumption required by the statute.
  • The program's financial management needs improvement. Each year the Agricultural Marketing Service transfers the majority of the funds available to the program to the Food and Nutrition Service to support the school lunch program. The basis of this transfer is unclear and the methodology for calculating this amount is not transparent.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Developing outcome-based annual and long-term performance measures, including baselines and targets that demonstrate progress towards a long-term programmatic outcome.
  • Developing, as part of the commodity purchase process, an economic analysis that considers the long-term effects of commodity purchases on over-production and over-supply.
  • Developing basic, uniform criteria for commodity diversion and surplus commodity purchases and completing action to correct management deficiencies identified though audit reviews.

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