WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. government has no strategy or common purpose to guide its distribution of billions of dollars worth of foreign aid every year, says a Senate report.

The Republican staff of the Foreign Relations Committee says the relationship between officials in Washington and foreign service officers responsible for aid distribution in the field is at "a low ebb" and that what efforts there have been from the center to provide leadership have made matters worse.

"From the field, policymakers in both the executive and legislative branches can appear demanding, deaf and sometimes schizophrenic," reads the report, published Monday. "New enthusiasms from democracy promotion to HIV/AIDS prevention erupt regularly even though, from the field perspective, they have long been a priority."

The authors found deep frustration among front-line representatives about Washington's decision-making.

"Headquarters talk of 'listening to the field expert' ends in greater central control of ever more tactical decisions. Requests for information are reversed, reordered, continuously revised and, in the end, information provided by the field can appear unread and overlooked as decisions contrary to field advice go unexplained."

The harshly worded report blames bureaucratic resistance for the uneven implementation of efforts to improve strategic focus.

"Leadership from this and future presidents is needed if we are going to get foreign aid right," the committee's senior Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said in a statement. "Our country faces a worldwide threat from terrorists. … A foreign assistance program that fights endemic poverty and helps build just, open and well-governed societies will go a long way toward loosening the lure of violent extremism."