Report Contents
Report Terms
Report Recommendations
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should develop standardized data on its programs, participants and resources in real time.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should commission and complete a knowledge management review by outside experts to define, map, and optimize the business process workflows and data models of the bureau.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should create a line item in its operating budget for information technology.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should disseminate a strategic plan with long-term goals for the information technology division within the executive office.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should provide all information technology staff transferred to the executive office with revised notification of personnel action forms and position descriptions that are accurate, up to date, and reflect newly defined roles and responsibilities.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should coordinate and manage all systems and applications development activities occurring outside the executive office through the information technology division.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should implement and enforce the systems development life cycle process for all bureau systems and applications to include, at a minimum, the identification of user and system requirements and consultation with stakeholders and the review by management of deliverables at each control gate throughout the process.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should schedule and execute a comprehensive review of each visitor exchange program category to determine whether any regulatory reform is required.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should revise regulations for J visa programs to require U.S. sponsors to publicly disclose all fees which they and their overseas partners charge exchange visitor participants.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in coordination with the Office of the Legal Adviser, should implement an annual program audit requirement for designated sponsors in every J visa program.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in coordination with the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the Office of the Legal Adviser, and the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, should submit a proposal to the Deputy Secretary for Resources and Management to determine the viability of ending or transferring its current responsibilities for the alien physician, au pair, intern, teacher, and trainee programs to the Department of Labor.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should implement a procedure for gathering relevant information on its designated sponsors from other Department of State and U.S. Government entities.
The Office of the Legal Adviser, in coordination with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, should continue to determine whether host family names can be checked against law enforcement databases and, if so, implement a procedure for such checks.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in coordination with the Bureau of Administration, Office of the Procurement Executive, should implement acquisition planning procedures and train program offices on the process.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in coordination with the Office of the Legal Adviser, should submit a proposal to the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs for approval to make the accident and sickness program for exchanges more cost effective.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, in coordination with the Bureau of Administration, Office of the Procurement Executive, should create a mechanism for warranted grants officers to provide input for performance evaluations of grants officer representatives.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should implement a bureauwide training plan tied to achieving its performance goals and mandate use of individual development plans to help populate the overall training plan.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs should complete the codification and dissemination of receiving procedures.