Report Contents
What OIG Inspected
OIG inspected the executive direction, program and policy implementation, and resource management operations of Embassy Bogota.
What OIG Recommends
OIG made 39 recommendations: 29 to Embassy Bogota to improve management and information management operations and 9 to address issues in the Political, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, Public Diplomacy, and Consular Sections; and 1 to the Bureau of Consular Affairs regarding the collection and reconciliation of nonimmigrant visa application fees. In its comments on the draft report, the Department concurred with 38 recommendations and disagreed with 1. OIG considers all recommendations, except one, resolved. The Department’s response to each recommendation and OIG’s reply can be found in the Recommendations section of this report. The Department’s formal written responses are reprinted in their entirety in Appendix B.
What OIG Found
- The Ambassador and the Deputy Chief of Mission led Embassy Bogota in a professional and collaborative manner consistent with the Department of State’s leadership principles.
- The Bureau of Consular Affairs needed to determine and correct the cause of a persistent shortfall in nonimmigrant visa application fees at Embassy Bogota.
- Consular Section leadership focused on adjudication speed in the visa unit to the detriment of other priorities.
- The embassy’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section needed to improve its end use monitoring of Department of Defense articles.
- The embassy ranked second highest in the Department for total number of motor vehicle collisions overseas, with 265 incidents from FY 2012 through FY 2017.
- The Information Management Section needed to correct several deficiencies to protect personally identifiable information and comply with Department information security standards at the Embassy Branch Office in Cartagena.
- Spotlight on Success: The embassy’s Regional Security Office created an innovative map of Colombia that consolidated up-to-date threat information and security incidents in areas visited by embassy personnel.
Report Terms
Report Recommendations
Embassy Bogota, in coordination with the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, should comply with Department standards for end use monitoring of defense articles.
Embassy Bogota should comply with Department standards related to contracting officer’s representative contract file documentation for contracts administered by the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Section.
Embassy Bogota should comply with Department standards for Federal assistance award file documentation for awards administered by the embassy’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section.
Embassy Bogota should comply with Department standards for the use of public diplomacy funds.
Embassy Bogota should document public diplomacy grants in accordance with the Federal Assistance Directive.
Embassy Bogota should align the supervisory structure in the Public Diplomacy Section in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should eliminate the requirement that adjudicators complete a specific number of visa interviews per hour and focus training on developing appropriate decision-making skills and visa security.
Embassy Bogota should use the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ management framework to align operations with Department standards and U.S. Government objectives.
Embassy Bogota should conform to the terms of the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ contractor’s task order requiring applicants to submit general visa inquiries to the contractor in order to appropriately employ staff expertise and put funds of approximately $65,200 to better use.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs, in coordination with Embassy Bogota, should complete its review of fee collections and reconciliations in Colombia to determine and correct the cause of the shortfall in nonimmigrant visa application fees.
Embassy Bogota, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should implement a corrective action plan to reduce the number of embassy motor vehicle mishaps.
Embassy Bogota, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should require all agencies under chief of mission authority to comply with Department standards for reporting motor vehicle mishaps.
Embassy Bogota should complete its fleet reports in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should comply with applicable Department overseas motor vehicle safety requirements for chauffeurs and incidental drivers under chief of mission authority.
Embassy Bogota should document future property disposals in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should use the Integrated Logistics Management System for all expendable supplies in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should assign separate receiving and property record keeping clerks for its bulk fuel operation and designate those duties in writing, in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should close out procurement files in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should conduct its annual 2018 review of its blanket purchase agreements, in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should submit the hotel and restaurant reports for its outdated foreign per diem locations to the Bureau of Administration’s Office of Allowances, in accordance with Department guidelines.
Embassy Bogota should submit the required retail price surveys to the Office of Allowances in accordance with Department guidelines.
Embassy Bogota should submit all required hardship differential surveys to the Office of Allowances, in accordance with Department guidelines.
Embassy Bogota should comply with Department guidelines for completion of post reports.
Embassy Bogota should reconcile transactions in the Suspense Deposit Abroad account in accordance with Department guidelines and put funds of $39,957 to better use.
Embassy Bogota should clear overdue travel advances in accordance with Department guidelines and put funds up to $1,451,820 to better use.
Embassy Bogota, in coordination with the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and the Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, should reprogram additional Diplomatic and Consular Program-funded Information Management positions to International Cooperative Administrative Support Services-funded positions in order to put funds of $81,331 per position to better use.
Embassy Bogota, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should bring Embassy Branch Office Cartagena’s safety, health, and environmental management program into compliance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should implement an action plan to resolve the mission’s fire protection deficiencies and bring the program into full compliance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should remove the KACTUS database from the dedicated internet network and conduct a risk assessment based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Risk Management Framework.
Embassy Bogota, in coordination with the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, should relocate the telecommunications demarcation point outside the limited access communications rooms.
Embassy Bogota should require that Information Systems Security Officers perform information systems security duties in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should implement standard operating procedures to manage its Active Directory groups for its classified and unclassified networks in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should implement procedures to control access to Embassy Branch Office Cartagena’s mail room in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should maintain its local Information Technology Configuration Control Board in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should inventory its databases and submit appropriate security documentation for databases containing personally identifiable information to the Bureau of Information Resource Management for an authorization decision.
Embassy Bogota should implement a patch management process for locally approved software operating on its networks, in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Bogota should implement standard operating procedures for knowledge management that outline how it will capture, share, transfer, and retain information related to its information management programs.
Embassy Bogota should conduct initial and annual refresher information technology contingency training for employees with information technology contingency planning responsibilities.
Embassy Bogota should test the information technology contingency plans for unclassified and classified networks in accordance with Department standards.