Inspection of Embassy Lima, Peru

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor should establish a mechanism to share information with Embassy Lima about grant progress and performance evaluation.

Embassy Lima should enroll in on-line grants management training political section employees with formal or informal grants oversight responsibilities.

Embassy Lima should have at least one public affairs grants officer who is not on the Fulbright Commission board.

Embassy Lima should store all grants files with personally identifiable information of U.S. citizens in approved bar lock cabinets or safes.

The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs should coordinate with the Bureau of Administration to establish a clear invitational travel policy that includes options for processing one-time travel authorizations.

Embassy Lima should formalize the delineation of services between Department of State entities and the Drug Enforcement Administration section to clarify which entity provides which services.

Embassy Lima should include public outreach as an ongoing responsibility in work requirements statements and establish a mechanism to monitor participation.

Embassy Lima should establish an embassy speakers program with an initial focus on first- and second-tour officers.

Embassy Lima should establish procedures for overseeing the housing and logistical plans for incoming American Fulbright grantees in accordance with Department of State guidance.

Embassy Lima should establish a plan for mission public outreach activities in the newly refurbished first-floor public diplomacy space.

Embassy Lima should require both the consul general and the visa chief to conduct routine visa interviews on a regular basis.

Embassy Lima should waive personal interviews for appropriate visa applicants.

Embassy Lima should request fingerprint machines for all visa interview windows.

Embassy Lima should implement an outreach plan to attract new wardens, update existing warden training, and maintain regular contact with the warden network.

Embassy Lima should identify a storage area for the effects of deceased Americans with access restricted to the provisional conservator.

Embassy Lima should obtain a bar-lock cabinet for the Cusco consular agency.

Embassy Lima should implement standard debt collection notification procedures.

Embassy Lima should refer any debt delinquent more than 90 days to accounts receivable.

The Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services should review the validity of Embassy Lima overpayments on the Payroll Employee Action Request List and initiate debt collection procedures to recoup valid overpayments.

Embassy Lima should require its contracting officers to sign invoices “Approved for Payment” in cases of a deviation among the invoice, obligating document, and receiving report that do not require an amendment to the purchase order.

The Bureau of Human Resources should provide the requested guidance to Embassy Lima to allow completion of the updated local compensation plan.

Embassy Lima, in coordination with the Office of Civil Rights, should designate a Federal Women’s Program coordinator who is not also the embassy’s Equal Employment Opportunity counselor.

Embassy Lima should establish procedures whereby the annual inventories of the expendable, maintenance, and automotive supply warehouses are conducted by property staff not accountable for the property being inventoried.

Embassy Lima should establish a comprehensive plan and an implementation timeline for a missionwide contact database.

Embassy Lima should establish a standard operating procedure, including a feedback mechanism, for managing the information systems center’s eService requests.

The Bureau of Information Resource Management, in coordination with the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, should provide operational guidance to missions designated as Information Technology Transformation Initiative pilots that continue to operate Foreign Affairs Networks.

Embassy Lima should convert the regional environment office Web site to a .gov domain in accordance with Department of State guidelines.

Embassy Lima, in coordination with the Office of Commissary and Recreation Affairs, should direct the employee association to engage a local labor attorney to determine whether the current reporting structure represents a potential liability to the U.S. Government under local labor law and, if it does, should implement corrective measures to eliminate that liability.

Embassy Lima, in coordination with the Office of Commissary and Recreation Affairs, should determine whether the registration of domestic employees and local/consignment sales cost centers are being subsidized unduly and implement measures to make them financially self-sustaining.

Embassy Lima, in coordination with the Office of Commissary and Recreation Affairs, should either obtain an exemption to Federal Acquisition Regulation 3.601 or eliminate the payment of parking fees to the association with official U.S. Government funds.