Contracting, financial management, and facilities offices[edit]
While the Mission DiContracting offices[edit]
Commitments of U.S. government funds to NGOs and firms that deliver USAID's assistance can only be made in compliance with carefully designed contracts and grant agreements executed by warranted Contracting Officers, not by the technical officers who design assistance. (The Mission Director is authorized to commit financial assistance directly to the country's government agencies.)
Financial management offices[edit]
Funds can be committed only when the Mission's Controller certifies their availability for the stated purpose. "FM" offices assist technical offices in financial analysis and in developing detailed budgets for inputs needed by projects assisted. They evaluate potential recipients' management abilities before financial assistance can be authorized and then review implementers' expenditure reports with great care. This office often has the largest number of staff of any office in the mission.
Facilities offices[edit]
Called the "Executive Office" in USAID (sometimes leading to confusion with the Embassy's Executive Office, which is the office of the Ambassador), "EXO" provides logistical support for mission offices, including personnel recruitments and management, computers, transportation, office space, and housing for U.S. staff. Increasing integration into Embassies' chancery complexes, and the State Department's recently increased role in managing USAID, is expanding the importance of coordination between USAID's EXO and the overall Embassy's General Services Office in dividing up responsibilities for support to the USAID mission.
ector is the public face and key decision-maker for an impressive array of USAID technical capabilities, arguably the offices that make USAID preeminent among U.S. government agencies in the ability to concretely follow through on assistance agreements are the missions' "support" offices