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- Addressed

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- Partially Addressed

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- Not Addressed

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- Consolidated or Other

℗

- Pending

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- Closed-Partially Addressed

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- Closed-Not Addressed

Year Identified: 2019

Area Number: 13

Area Type: Fragmentation, Overlap & Duplication

Action:

To ensure that the Department of State's (State) process allows it to initiate its Accountability Review Board (ARB) incident vetting process in a timely manner, the Secretary of State should revise State's policies to define responsibilities for internal communication to the Office of Management Policy, Rightsizing, and Innovation (M/PRI) of incidents that may involve injury, loss of life, or destruction of property at, or related to, U.S. missions abroad.

Progress:

On April 25, 2019, State issued a revised ARB policy to improve internal communication to M/PRI and address GAO’s July 2018 recommendation. The revised policy (12 FAM 030) requires specific State officials or their designees to notify M/PRI of an incident that could involve loss of life, serious injury, destruction of property, or a serious breach of security involving intelligence activities of a foreign government. These State officials include the Medical Director, assistant secretaries of regional bureaus, the Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security, and chiefs of mission, among others. The revised policy will help ensure that M/PRI initiates State’s ARB incident-vetting process in a timely manner.