| (in millions of $) | FY 2023 Enacted | FY 2024 Annualized CR | FY 2025 Request |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Appropriation/Request | 930.0 | 930.0 | 937.0 |
|
Total Administrative Expenses
|
130.0 | 130.0 | 146.0 |
Human Capital |
74 | 82 | 84 |
Training |
2 | 1 | 2 |
Overseas Operations |
13 | 14 | 15 |
Contracted Services |
14 | 9 | 14 |
Information Technology |
15 | 13 | 17 |
Rent, Leasehold & Improvements |
8 | 7 | 8 |
Travel |
4 | 4 | 6 |
Other Administrative Expenses |
0 | - | - |
For FY 2025, MCC requests $146 million in administrative expenses that support mission critical functions, such as overseas operational support, human capital, human resources, domestic and international security, financial management and oversight, contracts and grants acquisition, shared service provider support, travel and travel support, audit and risk management, facilities management, rent, information technology, and cybersecurity.
Human Capital
The budget includes $84 million toward human capital expenses, reflecting MCC’s commitment to retaining and recruiting high-caliber staff with specialized skills to provide quality program oversight.
The FY 2025 budget reflects the outyear impacts of recent salary increases, including FY 2023 and FY 2024 increases of over five percent each year (in line with the proposed General Schedule (GS) scale cost of living adjustments of 4.9% and 5.2% respectively), as well as an additional 2.1% increase for FY 2025 as projected for federal agencies. MCC uses a merit pay (or pay-for-performance) framework, which provides staff with pay raises based on their performance ratings. Like the GS pay scale, MCC also includes comparable increases to the established pay bands. Both adjustments are in line with standard inflationary increases for full-time equivalent (FTE) civil servants.
MCC conducted a human capital assessment in FY 2023 that aimed to identify acute bottlenecks and workload burdens across the agency. As a result, the agency added 14 prioritized FTE positions to alleviate the highest workload burdens, streamline operations, and to address new requirements, e.g. related to labor relations in light of MCC’s newly unionized environment. The budget also includes the standard additional FTE positions required to manage overseas operations as programs progress from development to implementation.
Overseas Operations
MCC’s FY 2025 budget includes $15 million to continue supporting overseas administrative operations, including locally-engaged staff salaries and benefits, and resident country management team costs, including rent, residential allowances, relocation expenses, travel related to resident country mission, shipping, office and residential furniture, IT equipment, and official vehicles. MCC’s overseas presence is projected to increase, as four compacts are expected to enter into force and three new programs are added to the portfolio in FY 2024 which will increase MCC’s share of FY 2025 International Cooperative Administrative Support Services (ICASS) and Capital Security Cost Sharing expenses. In addition, this request factors in global inflationary increases impacting the cost of doing business. Although MCC continuously reviews the costs related to overseas operations to maximize the use of funding while providing adequate support toward the relatively small overseas presence (typically two FTE per compact and one per threshold program), the agency continues to see an upward trajectory in year over year ICASS, security, shipping, and deployment costs in support of our portfolio of countries.
Information Technology (IT)
Within this request, $17 million for information technology (IT) support has been included, factoring in additional costs to ensure MCC’s IT environment meets cybersecurity standards. IT has an integral role in supporting agency-wide operations and initiatives, including providing process automation, delivering services for the publication of program data, enhancing analytical services, delivering communication and cloud-based collaboration tools, and providing ongoing improvements for reporting grant disbursements for MCC’s country partners.
Cybersecurity threats keep evolving, and overall risk remains high. MCC continues to enhance its monitoring and behavior analytics capabilities and is integrating them with its Security Operations Center. MCC participates in annual Federal Information Security Management Act audits conducted by the USAID Office of Inspector General, and reports to Congress and OMB on the findings and recommendations. MCC continues to implement capabilities in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security Continuous Diagnostic Monitoring Program and publishes its cybersecurity metrics through the government-wide dashboard. Beginning in FY 2023 and continuing through FY 2025, MCC will focus on implementing modernizations to its technology infrastructure consistent with the zero-trust principles outlined in Executive Order 14028 on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity and subsequent guidance on zero-trust from the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, and OMB memo M-22-09.
MCC continues to upgrade infrastructure and systems through incremental deployments and uses a multi-year approach to address its technology backlog and refresh aging equipment. Demand for digital services remains high, playing a central role in supporting MCC’s mission-focused systems and data-driven decision making. MCC continues to demonstrate its commitment to open data and will continue investing in leveraging data as a strategic asset and participating in open data and transparency initiatives. As noted previously, MCC was recognized by the International Aid Transparency Index as the highest performing US agency, and the highest performing bilateral agency worldwide. MCC’s Evidence Platform encourages the use of MCC’s data, documentation, and analysis as global public goods to support mutual accountability for the agency and its country partners, and to encourage learning from measured results.
Rent
MCC anticipates $8 million being needed in FY 2025 for known, continuing rent costs for office space at MCC’s headquarters inclusive of inflationary increases built into our lease agreement. MCC’s existing lease agreement is due to expire in December 2025 (first quarter of FY 2026) and the agency is currently conducting a lease assessment analysis to explore options of renegotiating the lease and remaining in existing space which may require leasehold improvements, retrofitting, or pursuing a move to new office space.