Report Contents
What OIG Inspected
OIG inspected the operations of the Kentucky Consular Center, which is part of the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Office of Visa Services.
What OIG Recommends
OIG made 6 recommendations: 5 to the Bureau of Consular Affairs and 1 to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
In its comments on the draft report, the Department concurred with 5 recommendations and disagreed with 1 recommendation. OIG considers 5 recommendations resolved and 1 recommendation unresolved. 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 Kentucky Consular Center generally was successful in meeting its mission to deliver timely and accurate products and services in support of overseas visa operations and domestic passport production.
- Persistent vacancies and high attrition rates among the center’s contract staff will affect its ability to take on additional programmatic responsibilities in support of administration and Department of State priorities.
- The center’s Director did not have supervisory authority over all Department direct-hire employees, which created management challenges.
- Various issues related to the Kentucky Consular Center’s two contracts needed attention, including oversight, invoice tracking, clear delineation of contractor and contracting officer’s representative responsibilities, and contract file maintenance.
- The 2,000-square-foot server room was underused and costly to maintain, while the Kentucky Consular Center suffered from a shortage of useable production space.
- Spotlight on Success: The Kentucky Consular Center added prescreening of complicated resource- and time-consuming Treaty Trader and Treaty Investor visas to its fraud prevention programs in support of the overseas visa process
Report Terms
Report Recommendations
The Bureau of Diplomatic Security, in coordination with the Bureau of Consular Affairs, should modify the performance rating structure for the Diplomatic Security Investigative Unit supervisor to include the Kentucky Consular Center Director as the rater or reviewer.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs should require the Kentucky Consular Center to centralize all Contracting Officer’s Representative files for the prime labor contract and provide file access to all Contracting Officer’s Representatives and Government Technical Monitors designated on the contract.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs should require the Kentucky Consular Center to implement standard operating procedures for invoice reviews to clearly delineate the roles of the Contracting Officer’s Representative and the quality assurance contractors, in accordance with Department standards.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs should require the Kentucky Consular Center to track and pay invoices in accordance with the Prompt Payment Act and Department standards.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs should require the Kentucky Consular Center to conduct oversight of the quality assurance contract in accordance with Department standards.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs, in coordination with the Bureau of Administration, should conduct a space utilization study of the Kentucky Consular Center's Appalachian Processing Center and implement a plan for its cost-effective use or repurposing.