Report Contents
What OIG Inspected
OIG inspected the executive direction, program and policy implementation, and resource management operations of Embassy Port-au-Prince.
What OIG Recommends
OIG made 42 recommendations to improve Embassy Port-au-Prince’s operations: 41 to the embassy and 1 to the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations.
In its comments on the draft report, the Department concurred with all 42 recommendations. OIG considers the recommendations 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 Port-au-Prince in a professional and collaborative manner, and effectively engaged the Government of Haiti.
- Staff praised the Ambassador and the Deputy Chief of Mission for supporting embassy personnel and programs. However, multiple internal control deficiencies existed across Embassy Port-au-Prince’s resource management and information management operations.
- The Consular Section’s Immigrant Visa Unit accepted more immigrant visa cases than it had the capacity to process, leading to an uneven distribution of workload and low morale.
- Embassy Port-au-Prince had the highest number of motor vehicle mishaps in the Department of State, with 379 motor vehicle collisions from FY 2012 through FY 2018. Sixty-two percent of the collisions were categorized as preventable.
- The embassy did not conduct required seismic safety assessments of 25 leased residential units despite Haiti’s location in a high-risk seismic area.
- The embassy lacked information technology contingency planning to efficiently respond to system outages.
Report Terms
Report Recommendations
Embassy Port-au-Prince should conduct project and program evaluations in accordance with Department guidance.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should require all contracting officer’s representatives in the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Section to maintain their contract files in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should comply with Department standards for acceptance of all fuel deliveries.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should designate a cleared U.S. citizen employee as the backup for the Leahy Vetting Coordinator in accordance with Department guidelines.
Embassy Port-au-Prince, in coordination with the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and the Bureau of Global Public Affairs, should create a social media strategy and a crisis communication plan in accordance with Department guidance.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should bring the public diplomacy grants program into compliance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should use the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ management framework to manage the immigrant visa workload more effectively.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should review immigrant visa refusals in accordance with Department guidelines.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should use the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ management framework to comply with Department guidance for processing and accommodating consular customers.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should monitor Global Support Services to verify the accuracy and quality of information provided to visa applicants in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should document nonimmigrant visa priority appointment requests in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should implement a corrective action plan to reduce the number of preventable motor vehicle mishaps.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should require that all chauffeurs and incidental drivers under Chief of Mission authority comply with applicable Department Overseas Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should complete its fleet reports in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should document nonexpendable property transfers in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should manage its bulk fuel operation in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should close out procurement files in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should require all contracting officer’s representatives to administer their contracts in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should submit its hotel and restaurant reports to the Bureau of Administration in accordance with Department standards.
The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, in coordination with Embassy Port-au-Prince, should connect the “Stecher-Roumain” housing compound to the local power grid, and put funds of up to $3.03 million over 5 years to better use.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should comply with Department standards for residential safety and security certifications.
Embassy Port-au-Prince, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should perform seismic evaluations of its residential properties in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should complete all outstanding elevator repairs needed to obtain a current Certificate of Use for each elevator, in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should resolve the embassy safety, health, and environmental management program deficiencies and bring the program into full compliance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, should resolve the mission’s fire protection deficiencies and bring the program into full compliance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should clear overdue travel advances in accordance with Department guidelines, and put up to $146,557 to better use.
Embassy Port-au-Prince, in coordination with the Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, should clear all unprocessed and rejected transactions in accordance with Department guidelines.
Embassy Port-au-Prince, 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 accordance with Department standards in order to put funds of $81,331 per position to better use.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should establish a schedule that allows the alternate cashier to work as the principal cashier in accordance with Department guidelines.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should submit its Retail Price Schedule to the Bureau of Administration’s Office of Allowances in accordance with Department guidelines.
Embassy Port-au-Prince, in coordination with the Bureau of Human Resources, should update the local compensation plan to reflect current Haitian labor law, in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should require the American Employee Association to submit an annual audit report in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince, in coordination with the Bureau of Administration, should request authorization to provide childcare services on U.S. Government property.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should complete annual tests of the information technology contingency plans for unclassified and classified networks in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should conduct initial and annual refresher information technology contingency training for employees with information technology contingency planning responsibilities in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should require its local Information Technology Configuration Control Board to comply with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should comply with Department standards for records management.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should require that Information Systems Security Officers perform information systems security duties in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should implement standard operating procedures for systems administrators in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should install an emergency power-off switch inside the unclassified server room adjacent to the egress door in accordance with Department standards.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should repair the electrical wiring in the unclassified server room.
Embassy Port-au-Prince should comply with Department standards for mobile device inventory.