The FY 2004 Department of State Performance and Accountability Report highlighted several management challenges that the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Office of Inspector General (OIG), and the Department's independent auditor identified as areas where the Department needed to improve its operations. Of particular note were problems with visa processing and border security; secure passport issuance; communication with and outreach to the Muslim public; and internal management issues ranging from staffing of hardship posts to protection of classified material to internal controls over financial transactions.
Management Challenges Highlighted by the Office of Inspector General
Three of the five OIG reports included in the Management Challenges section of the FY 2004 PAR have been closed by the inspectors. Inspectors have concluded that the Department has taken appropriate action to satisfy recommendations and improve operations in areas under the following reports:
- Report AUD/PPA- 04-07, which called for the State Department to construct concurrently with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) buildings, annexes and additions to the greatest extent possible, and encouraged collocation of facilities whenever feasible;
- Report ISP-04-54, which encouraged the Director General of the Foreign Service to improve leadership and staffing at hardship posts in order to improve morale and management at these posts;
- Report ISP-I-04-18, which recommended that the Department of State document lessons learned from its move of domestic financial services to offices in Charleston, South Carolina.
Report SIO-A-04-08, which called on the Department to remind overseas employees of their responsibilities regarding handling of classified material, is currently being closed out pending formal changes to the Foreign Affairs Manual on the distribution of certain categories of classified documents.
Report ISP-CA-04-01, regarding the need for additional training on the issuance of passports, especially overseas, was resolved. In following with the recommendations of the Inspector General, the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) agreed to develop and issue a standard passport troubleshooting guide for use worldwide and has implemented a quality assurance program. CA also agreed to institute a mentoring program for junior officers to provide feedback and additional training in processing passports.
Management Challenges Highlighted by the Government Accountability Office
As detailed below, the Department took additional steps since the release of the FY 2004 Performance and Accountability Report to resolve management challenges identified by the GAO under the following reports:
- Report GAO-04-795 highlighted problems associated with delays in the process for revoking visas. The GAO recommended corrective action to eliminate these delays. To meet these concerns and implement the recommendations, the Department of State revised and formalized its tracking system for visa revocations. State also met with Department of Homeland Security officials to agree on steps to solve legal and policy problems associated with visa revocations. These actions have met the GAO's concerns and greatly accelerated the processing of visa revocations.
- Report GAO-04-1001 indicated a need for more guidance to the field in the collection of biometric data necessary for visa issuance, specifically the collection of two index fingerprints from all applicants. This additional guidance was provided to the field, so this need has been met. It should be noted that, since this report was issued, the Department of Homeland Security decided that ten fingerprints must be collected from all visa applicants. The Department of State is now planning for collection of ten fingerprints from all applicants beginning in FY 2007.
- Report GAO-04-4435T recommended that State develop a strategy to integrate its pubic diplomacy efforts and direct them toward common, measurable objectives, targeting Muslim audiences in particular. Since becoming Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Karen Hughes has taken a number of steps to meet this requirement. First, the Department has put in place a strategic framework with three key components: (1) offer a positive vision of hope that is rooted in the President's freedom agenda; (2) work to isolate and marginalize extremists and undermine their appropriation of religion; and (3) foster a sense of common interests between Americans and people of different countries and cultures and faiths throughout the world. In addition, the Department is taking the following steps to support this strategic vision and integrate public diplomacy more effectively into the policy process:
- The Department is reviewing public diplomacy structures and programs with the goal of strengthening public diplomacy to support this strategic vision.
- The Department now has one deputy assistant secretary or equivalent in each of the regional bureaus with responsibility for public diplomacy activities in the region. These officials report both to the regional assistant secretary and the Under Secretary.
- The President has asked the Under Secretary to lead the strategic communication effort with the U.S. Government. The Under Secretary has consulted policy and communications experts in various agencies on how best to counter extremist ideology, which will be an immediate focus. The expected result from this outreach is to achieve broader interagency coordination on the full range of strategic communications matters.
- The Department is also working with the Performance Institute, the leading think tank on public policy performance, to develop a framework of performance metrics to measure the extent of public diplomacy activities against strategic objectives.
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