Skip to main content

Department of State: Human Capital Strategy Does Not Recognize Foreign Assistance Responsibilities

GAO-07-1153 Published: Sep 28, 2007. Publicly Released: Sep 28, 2007.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

The Secretary of State has made foreign assistance a pillar of the department's Transformational Diplomacy Initiative and has sought better policy coordination, planning, and oversight by establishing a Director of Foreign Assistance (F Bureau). Even though the U.S. Agency for International Development has been the principal agency for development and humanitarian aid, the Department of State (State) has had a significant role delivering this type of assistance. Thus, it is essential that State have the right staff, with the right skills, in the right places to carry out its foreign assistance management responsibilities and ensure that U.S. funds are well spent. As requested, this report (1) describes the size and scope of development and humanitarian foreign assistance programs managed by State, (2) describes State's approaches to managing and monitoring such programs, and (3) evaluates State's processes for determining its human capital requirements for managing these programs.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of State The Secretary of State should take steps to define the skills and competencies the department's employees need to manage foreign assistance responsibilities, including developing information on the number and type of staff who are currently managing foreign assistance programs, their roles and responsibilities, workload, experience, and training.
Closed – Implemented
In January 2009, State Department Human Resources officials reported that the department determined and defined the high-level workforce competencies needed in order to effectively provide federal assistance as: strategic planning and policy, program management and coordination, project management and implementation, and training. According to the officials, State planned to use reports generated by its domestic staffing model and the results of a survey of overseas posts to identify which positions in the department, both domestic and overseas, required employees to have federal assistance competencies. In July 2010, State Human Resources officials reported that they were not fully satisfied with the reports from the and planned to conduct another overseas survey in the summer of 2010 to fully document the number of work years and staff positions involved in all aspects of foreign assistance programming. They reported that the information would be combined with domestic staffing data in a special data base that would compare employee training profiles with designated duties. In August 2011, State Human Resources officials reported that State had identified positions which had foreign assistance related duties and employees encumbering these positions. State provided spreadsheets that identified federal assistance workload by function, bureau, office, and for overseas positions. In addition, State has developed a database of all its warranted Grants Officers. According to State Human Resources officials, it can use the database to track and mandate training. State is also in the process of developing a Grants Officer Representative (GOR) database.
Department of State The Secretary of State should develop a strategy to address any gaps it identifies.
Closed – Implemented
State took a number of actions to increase training opportunities for staff with foreign assistance-related responsibilities. For example, the Department's Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is developing a distance learning course to be offered by the end of calendar year 2011 that will cover basic U.S. assistance principles and practices. The US Agency for International Development is cooperating with FSI on this project, providing subject matter expertise for the creation of the course. FSI is also creating a more in-depth classroom course covering these subjects, with a delivery target of early CY 2012. Finally, the Office of the Procurement Executive, the Foreign Service Institute and the Bureau of Human Resources worked together to establish a comprehensive grants section in the civil service training continuum.

Full Report

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Economic developmentEmployeesFederal employeesFederal grantsForeign aid programsForeign economic assistanceHuman capitalHuman capital managementHuman capital planningHuman capital policiesPolicy evaluationProgram evaluationProgram managementStrategic planningProgram implementation