Inspection of the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States

What OIG Inspected
OIG inspected the executive direction, program and policy implementation, and resource management operations of the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States. What OIG Recommends OIG made 4 recommendations to the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States.

In its comments on the draft report, the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States concurred with all 4 recommendations. OIG considers the 4 recommendations resolved. The mission’s response to each recommendation and OIG’s reply can be found in the Recommendations section of this report. The mission’s formal written response is reprinted in its entirety in Appendix B.

What OIG Found

• The Ambassador and the Deputy Chief of Mission led the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States in a positive and professional manner. Under the Ambassador’s leadership, the mission significantly advanced U.S. policy goals for the Organization of American States.
• The mission lacked a formal strategic planning process.
• The mission did not systematically report to the Department of State on the Organization of American States’ negotiations and policy meetings, putting the Department at risk of losing information on important deliberations essential to the mission’s function.
• The mission did not align its staffing and structure with the Department’s organizational planning and position management policies, which led to unbalanced workload distribution among employees.
• The U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States did not have a records management program and was not properly retaining or disposing its files and records.