La Iyo Iki: Skeptical Bureaucrat

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Fortress Embassies: A Tanka or Two

Image by Moto Pony via Flickr

Two blog friends, TSB of The Skeptical Bureaucrat and Digger of Life After Jerusalem have both written on the recent dancing in a tide pool about fortress embassies by an outgoing ambassador. After a weekend reading the OIG report on US Embassy Croatia, a very good report I must say, except for questionable staff morale attributed to the location of its new fortress office -- I feel I must wade into the tide pool with a tanka or two…

But first, the OIG on that fortress Embassy in rural Croatia:

In 2003, Embassy Zagreb moved into a new embassy compound (NEC) whose fortress-like exterior and remote location are seen by many employees as a source of irritation and an impediment to conducting efficient, open relations with Croatia. Falling staff levels mean that current occupancy is 20 percent lower than the level for which the building was built. […]
US Embassy Zagreb via Wikipedia
Despite unanimous high regard for the Ambassador among the embassy staff and the Ambassador’s and DCM’s attention to the community, staff morale is not quite as high as expected for an operation so well run, in a pleasant and pro-American country. The principal reason appears to be the location of the NEC. This facility, which opened in 2003, has a very attractive, spacious, and well-designed interior, but it lies amid farmland and industrial warehouses, well outside the urban or even suburban reaches of Zagreb. Consequently, Croatians and third-country interlocutors rarely visit the Embassy; every meeting with a government official or other contact requires a bracket of up to an hour before and after in transit time; and the distance factor inevitably reduces the number of such meetings. In addition, the morning and evening commute consumes almost as much time as in cities with 15 times the population of Zagreb. Housing U.S. employees near the Embassy, as is planned, will reduce the commute but isolate them from the life of the country. In 20 years, Zagreb may sprawl outward to reach the Embassy; meanwhile, the NEC’s location thwarts the primary purpose for its existence. Embassy Zagreb is paying for its safety with two decades or more of unnecessary staff transit time and aggravation. In addition to the location issue, the building is at least 20 percent larger than necessary for the staff now required in Croatia.

Second, I did not realize that an OIG report can be quite inspiring as a muse. A tanka or two below:

the new embassyfortress-like, aggravationan impedimentto open air relationsa beauty obscured, secured

~ * ~

the new embassyfortress-like irritationone big obstructionto candid conversationan eyesore for sure, secure

Monday, June 8, 2009

The State Department’s FRUS Fracas Concludes

Early this year, the special review panel appointed to look into the controversy in the Historian’s Office at the State Department submitted a two-page report (January 19, 2009). It concludes among other things that the current working atmosphere in the HO and between the HO and the HAC “poses real threats to the high scholarly quality of the FRUS series” and the management challenges in HO merit “serious consideration of a reorganization.”

The report led the Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy to request a follow-up inspection by the OIG. Last week, State’s Inspector General released its report (h/t to Skeptical Bureaucrat) with the following key judgments:

»The Office of the Historian (HO) is responsible by law for the publication of a thorough, accurate, and reliable account of major U.S. foreign policy decisions within 30 years of the events recorded. This is the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series. While the 30-year deadline has rarely been met, HO’s influential advisory body, the Historical Advisory Committee (HAC), fears that mismanagement of the human resources made available for the FRUS and the effect of this on morale within HO – also historically poor – threaten further delay, possibly damaging the thoroughness and accuracy that give the FRUS its unparalleled prestige. OIG finds these fears to be justified.

»A large majority of present HO employees alleged to OIG cronyism, favoritism, and lack of transparency on the part of HO management, and in general the creation of an unhappy workplace as the basis for their disaffection. This, they said, was made worse by the manner in which one division chief carried out security and other duties that go beyond his normal area of authority. For its part, management attributed academic atavism, displeasure with security regulations, and ignorance of Civil Service rules to the same employees. Neither side shows much confidence in the other.

»Compilation and publication of the FRUS is a years-long and highly specialized process. Experience is a vital component in it, but with 21 employees having left HO in the past five years for differing reasons, this experience is being lost. Contrary to the director’s assertion, “newly minted” PhDs cannot perform at the necessary level of quality after only a short time on the job. Lapses in production are therefore inevitable. This likelihood is aggravated by vacancies in the jobs of general editor and one division chief that were imposed by the special review panel.

»There is a built-in tension between HO’s FRUS-related statutory obligations and the resources made available to meet them, just as there is between the timeliness and the quality of the FRUS itself. Even with an increase in staff and in budget, HO is no closer to meeting these obligations than in the past. The foreign affairs world and the players in it continue to grow in number and complexity, outpacing efforts to have FRUS keep up. There is a need for more structured thinking about how FRUS can meet its obligations and expectations within realistic funding levels. This strategic thinking and planning should be conducted jointly with HO’s advisory body, the HAC.

»With each finding fault with actions of the other, relations between HO and the HAC today are professional but strained. The director’s advisory role in the appointment and reappointment of HAC members is controversial, while the involvement in HO employee complaints by some HAC members made disaffection in HO worse.

»Oversight of HO by the Bureau of Public Affairs (PA) has not been regular or, lately, helpful. OIG believes that HO should remain in PA, but that the bureau should provide a more structured mechanism for closer supervision of HO.

»HO has a large number of contractors – 12 of its 49 positions. This means increased costs: OIG estimates that each contractor costs the U.S. Government about $12,000 more per year than would a direct-hire employee. It also means increased instability in an office requiring a high degree of education, training, and experience to carry out its responsibilities.

»HO needs an administrative officer as well as additional direct-hire positions for historians. These would help the FRUS by allowing more time to be spent on research and compilation and by providing a more stable workforce.

»HO office space is cluttered and badly arranged; cubicles are generally small and inconvenient. The office is not sized to house 49 positions. PA should find a space planner to review the existing facility, while actively seeking larger, more suitable space for HO.

A closer reading of the OIG report also reveals the following hard-hitting nuggets that the OIG is not shy of pointing out:

The Assistant Secretary was consumed by other duties

Until about two years ago, PA was regularly and helpfully involved in what HO was doing. The Assistant Secretary had urged the director to “put HO on the map,” and the supervising deputy assistant secretary helped to get the additional resources that were needed to do it. The deputy assistant secretary attended HO staff meetings and lent a strong, benevolent hand to the office’s problems as well as to those of individual employees. Regular PA staff meetings supported the bureau’s sympathetic supervision. Unfortunately, changes in PA’s front office resulted in a loss of interest in HO. Until PA resumed office director meetings with the change of administrations, there were none. The deputy assistant secretary had little contact with the office, and the Assistant Secretary was consumed by other duties.

Public Affairs oversight of the Historian’s Office

OIG found that the problems in the management of HO had not been reviewed and corrected by past PA officials. More interaction in the way of regular office director meetings, more broadly inclusive staff meetings, and realistic periodic performance evaluations of HO leadership involving personal knowledge of HO activities, might have identified the issues in HO and helped resolve them. Because of past lack of clarity in PA on who performs the oversight of HO and how it will be done, OIG believes that PA should establish a clear chain of command for the HO office director to utilize when informing PA of HO activities, and to provide better PA oversight of HO.

Something in HO is very wrong

In varying degrees, nearly 75 percent of the present HO employees interviewed by OIG were critical of the way the office is run. They alleged favoritism, cronyism, a lack of transparency, lack of interest in the FRUS, disparagement of the staff, suspicion, an absence of leadership, and, in general, the creation of an unhappy workplace. The statements to OIG generally were made by individuals with first-hand experience of the issue. For the most part they included specific instances to which the speaker was a party. The effect is a widespread perception of mismanagement and a general – though not unanimous – disaffection. As measured by OIG questionnaires, and by comparison with many other inspected entities, average individual morale (5 being the highest) is a low 2.82 and that of the office an even lower 1.91.

HO is an unusual organization in the Department’s structure: highly specialized, remote from its parent bodies, and attractive to those who prefer research to operations. Poor morale is not a new problem, as both the 1990 and 2002 OIG inspections of PA found, but today it is unusually low. When added to the high number of staff departures in recent years, the two together indicate that something in HO is very wrong.

Lack of trust all around

OIG found an unending chain of allegations and counter-allegations. There is a lack of trust all around. Some employees told OIG that they loved their jobs but did not like going to work.

OIG believes that the HAC’s real and expressed fear is that managerial problems in HO will so damage staff morale and effectiveness as to cause harm to the FRUS above and beyond any other aspects of the problem, however genuine they may be. On this point its worries are on firm ground. The HAC is on less solid ground in the matter of engaging with HO staff on internal HO administrative problems. This happened after individual HO employees approached HAC members about personal complaints. HAC members then became involved in internal HO management issues, with some taking the initiative themselves to contact HO employees. Both HO employees and HAC members told OIG that this happened after their approaches to PA did not give them the satisfaction they sought. The HAC then took its worries to the Secretary, who set into motion the chain the events leading to this review.

The OIG interviewed more than 90 persons, including past and present HO members as well as PA staff and other Department personnel. HO employees also filled out standard OIG questionnaires. The inspection team attended HAC meetings, met with the full HAC membership, as well as separately with two of them, and both met and corresponded with members of the special review panel.

The OIG provided a 24-point recommendation for the Historian’s Office (see pages 31-33).

Friday, May 15, 2009

Tough Dance at the Podium

The Skeptical Bureaucrat had a piece yesterday on a former Foreign Service Officer, Sabrina De Souza, who has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of State, Secretary of State Clinton, and the United States of America ("defendants") and has requested that the Court afford her relief, among them to:

Require the USG to formally invoke diplomatic and/or consular immunity on behalf of De Sousa and provide her with legal representation with respect to both the criminal and civil proceedings in Italy;

Declare and find that the defendants violated the Administrative Procedures Act by failing to comply with internal rules and regulations with respect to invoking and asserting diplomatic and/or consular immunity on behalf of De Sousa;

Require the defendants to provide De Sousa with a name-clearing hearing in which De Sousa can refute and/or challenge the accuracy of the information underlying the criminal and civil proceedings in Italy that constructively forced her to resign;

Declare and find that the defendants violated De Sousa's liberty interest in traveling and pursuing a career dependent on travel under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution;

You just know this item is going to pop up in the Daily Press Briefing. From yesterday’s DPB:

QUESTION: Ian, can you tell – what can you tell us about the case of this woman named Sabrina De Souza, who has filed a law suit here seeking to force the State Department to invoke diplomatic immunity in her case in Italy?

MR. KELLY: Yeah, you know, I saw that – saw that story in the Times today. Because it’s a subject of an ongoing review, I think I’m just going to take the question, if you don’t mind, and get back to you.

QUESTION: Surely you can confirm whether or not someone was an employee of the State Department.

MR. KELLY: No, really, please just, you know, let me – let me – I want to refer this question to our legal department, if you don’t mind, and we will get back to you.

QUESTION: That’s even less than a comment on a pending legal case and I’ll refer you to the Department of Justice.

Grumble…grumble…it did not start off on the right foot, of course…earlier…

MR. KELLY:[…] I think you’ve all also gotten the notification that the Secretary will have a briefing tomorrow at the Foreign Press Center, and so that – you need to register for that. But that will be tomorrow.

QUESTION: I think you have to be in the foreign press, right?

QUESTION: Yeah.

MR. KELLY: No, I don’t think so. You just need to register.

QUESTION: There’s a Smith-Mundt provision. You better check that. You may not – you may not even have been able – allowed to announce that. (Laughter.)

But on the – since you already have, can we put in a request to have her come down and brief us, perhaps? You know, she has made a couple of appearances here, but never taken any questions.

MR. KELLY: Sure, sure. Well, she came a few days ago, but as you point out, didn’t take any questions. Yeah, we’ll be glad to suggest that to her.

QUESTION: Ian, I don’t think – I don’t know whether you – if you stated the time for that tomorrow. It’s – can you state the time for the record?

MR. KELLY: Well, I – yeah, I don’t know if I have the time. I think I have like the registration deadline for it. I mean, you have to RSVP by 5 p.m. today, but I don’t have the time. I mean --

QUESTION: Do you want me to tell you what it is?

Oh gouchy … just grouchy…

QUESTION: I know we’ve been over this I think a couple times before. But there’s a new report out saying that the U.S. wanted to swap Saberi for the four diplomats who are being held in Irbil. The IRGC guys have been held for a while. Can you say categorically whether that’s true or not?

MR. KELLY: I can categorically say that’s not true.

QUESTION: Well, why was that so hard five minutes earlier?

MR. KELLY: (Laughter.) All right. I’m still working through this, Arshad.

Four more weeks of this and these folks won't be so charming. Although it seems that he can make them laugh, which is always a good thing whether you're on the podium or not.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

A Future Case Study: Mutiny of the Foggy Bottom Historians

TSB of The Skeptical Bureaucrat has posted an item on a possible development in the State Department’s Office of the Historian. Read his post on Some Informed Speculation About the Office of the Historian.

For backgrounder, read Secrecy News’ Management Crisis Threatens “Foreign Relations” Series and the History News Network’s Hillary and the State Department Historian’s Office: A Way Forward.

If you have a subscription to the National Journal, you may also read John Maggs’ “Mutiny of the Foggy Bottom Historians” published over the weekend. The teaser reads: Accused of bureaucratic overreaching, the head of a State Department research team may soon be history himself.”

Related Posts:

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Bad News Round-up

Tell me there will be some good news tomorrow ...

On January 27: Fox News reports that "U.S. Consulate Mistakenly Sells Secret Files in Jerusalem"

Three years ago, in December 2005, a woman reportedly purchased a file cabinet from the American Consulate in Jerusalem during its regular furniture auction. Fox News reports last Tuesday (January 27, 2009) that “hundreds of files — with social security numbers, bank account numbers and other sensitive U.S. government information — were found in a filing cabinet.”

"We thought of calling the American consulate right away, and then we thought, you know they'll just hide it and say, 'Oh, we made a mistake.” The buyer, a woman named Paula was quoted as saying.

According to the report, Paula decided to come forward with the file after hearing about a Sept. 22, 2008 incident in which a Palestinian teenager crashed a BMW into a group of Israeli soldiers (her son’s unit); and she was angered when she heard that the car was purchased from an auction held by the consulate. The report includes a statement about U.S. officials denying any connection to the car. Fox News investigation also found there was no connection. “Paula, an Israeli who also holds U.S. citizenship, says she wanted to expose the incident because her loyalty is to the state of Israel.”

I just want to point out that a U.S. Consulate is normally a much smaller presence than an embassy. Whereas an embassy would have a senior General Services Officer (GSO) who may directly supervises auctions like this (reporting to a Management Officer), in smaller posts, auctions and other management and administrative duties become collateral duties for Consular, Political, or Econ/Pol Officers. So one becomes post management officer or post security officer in addition to one’s primary gig. But in this case, it looks like Jerusalem has its own Management Officer, GSO and its own Regional Security Officer.

La Iyo Iki