Fiscal Year 2024 Inspector General Statement on the Department of State’s Major Management and Performance Challenges

Each year, in accordance with the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000¹, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of State (Department) identifies the most significant management and performance challenges facing the Department and provides a brief assessment of the Department’s progress in addressing those challenges. We evaluate progress primarily through our compliance process, which tracks and assesses the Department’s efforts to implement corrective actions related to OIG recommendations. We determine challenges by taking a qualitative and holistic view of our body of oversight work, giving particular weight to common issues that appear to impact the Department systemically. 

We assess the Department’s major management and performance challenges as falling into three primary areas: 

• Safety and Security: Deficiencies that implicate the Department’s ability to ensure the safety and security of its personnel and their families, its facilities and other property, or its information. 
• Stewardship: Deficiencies that implicate the Department’s ability to efficiently and effectively manage its significant resources, financial and otherwise. 
• Staffing and Organizational Structure: Deficiencies that implicate the Department’s ability to manage its human capital and design and maintain an organizational structure that conveys clear lines of authority and responsibility. 

Additionally, throughout this report we highlight some of the difficulties the Department faces when operating in contingency environments and crisis situations. We have assessed this as a cross-cutting issue that can have implications for the overarching performance and management challenge areas. This document includes examples of OIG reports and findings completed in FY 2024 that illustrate these challenge areas. In addition to publicly available work, OIG issues Sensitive But Unclassified² and classified reports throughout the year. Although we are only able to discuss unclassified portions of our reports here, many of the findings that are not publicly available reinforce our assessment of these management challenges. 

^{1 The Reports Consolidation Act of 2000, § 3, Public Law 106-531 (amending 31 United States Code [U.S.C.] § 3516).} 

^{2 Sensitive But Unclassified material is information that is not classified for national security reasons, but warrants/requires administrative control and protection from public or other unauthorized disclosure for other reasons.}