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Open Recommendations (118 total)

COVID-19: State Carried Out Historic Repatriation Effort but Should Strengthen Its Preparedness for Future Crises

GAO-22-104354
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of State The Secretary of State should ensure that the Deputy Director for CMS develops guidance for initiating task forces that is consistent with State's policies and practices. (Recommendation 2)
Open
State concurred with this recommendation. State officials indicated that they are assessing existing policies to develop additional procedures to provide more clarity on task force processes. As of December 2023, we received some additional information but will need to follow up with State for additional support.

State Department: Additional Actions Needed to Address IT Workforce Challenges

GAO-22-105932
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of State The Secretary of State should direct the Under Secretary for Management to ensure that relevant data related to IT recruitment activities are accurate and available to facilitate decision-making and enable the department to monitor and evaluate its performance in meeting its IT human capital goals. (Recommendation 6)
Open
The Department of State (State) concurred with the recommendation. In February 2024, State noted that a Foreign Service Applicant Tracking system, a system that would enable tracking of relevant data on the department's IT recruitment, would to be implemented no later than mid-2025. State further noted that it is continuing its efforts to educate hiring managers and HR staff on hiring mechanisms available for IT Civil Service positions. However, as of March 2024, the department had not yet provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that it had implemented that system for the Foreign Service, developed the evaluation mechanism for the Civil Service, or developed a plan to ensure the accuracy and availability of recruitment data to monitor and evaluate State's performance in meeting its human capital goals. To fully implement this recommendation, State will need to provide evidence that it has ensured that relevant data related to IT recruitment activities are accurate and available to facilitate decision-making, and enable the department to monitor and evaluate its performance in meeting State's IT human capital goals.

Climate Change: State Department Did Not Track Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Delegation Travel to Meetings 26 and 27 of the United Nations Conference of the Parties

GAO-23-105863
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of State The Secretary of State should ensure that the State Department consistently estimates greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. delegation travel to meetings of the UN Conferences of the Parties to align with the goals of Executive Order 14057. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In a letter to GAO dated January 8, 2024, the Department of State said that it has completed a partial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory for both its domestic and international operations. The letter said that this emissions inventory includes estimates of GHG emissions from all of the Department's official travel during 2020, 2021, and 2022 that was conducted via the federally contracted travel management booking system. By developing an inventory, the Department intends to consistently estimate GHG emissions from not only State Department delegation travel to annual UN Climate Change Conferences, but all Department official travel in future years. GAO will follow-up with the Department of State to determine if it has implemented a complete emissions inventory to consistently estimate greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. delegation travel to meetings of the UN Conferences of the Parties.

Consular Affairs: State May Be Unable to Cover Projected Costs if Revenues Do Not Quickly Rebound to Pre-Pandemic Levels

GAO-22-104424
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of State
Priority Rec.
The Secretary of State should ensure the Bureau of Consular Affairs develops a plan to assess and document what fee amounts, statutory changes, supplemental and annual funding, or other actions would allow State to cover future consular costs. (Recommendation 1)
Open
State did not concur with our recommendation to develop a plan to assess and document what measures would allow State to cover future consular costs. As of March 2024, State has not provided us with the documentation necessary to close this recommendation, although they informed us in January 2024 that they are taking steps to do so. We informed State that, regardless of the recent short-term surges in fee revenue that have temporarily allowed State to cover consular costs, a plan to assess and document which measures would be sufficient to cover costs long term is needed to close this recommendation.

State Department: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Workplace Diversity and Inclusion

GAO-22-105182
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of State The Secretary of State should ensure the Office of Diversity and Inclusion establish performance measures for State's DEIA-related goals and objectives in the workplace and develop a process to evaluate progress. (Recommendation 1)
Open
State concurred with this recommendation. As of November 2023, State's Office of Diversity and Inclusion was leading an effort to draft quantitative and qualitative performance measures for a range of goals and objectives in the department's DEIA Strategic Plan, according to State. State plans to prioritize measures according to those it deems will have the most enterprise-wide impact. Once the department's DEIA Strategic Implementation Team approves the measures, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion will add them into a dedicated column in State's DEIA Strategic Plan's Implementation Dashboard and notify GAO on progress. We will continue to monitor State's progress on implementing this recommendation.

Cybersecurity: State Needs to Expeditiously Implement Risk Management and Other Key Practices

GAO-23-107012
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of State The Secretary of State should direct the CIO to assess, prioritize, and allocate available department-wide resources to address the constraints that contribute to the backlog of its assessment and authorization process and coordinate these activities with the Bureau of Budget and Planning. (Recommendation 6)
Open
The State Department concurred with this recommendation. In February 2024, the department stated that it had significantly reduced the backlog of authorizations through the allocation and prioritization of resources. State has not yet provided evidence of its corrective actions. We will continue to monitor the department's progress and update the recommendation's status when we receive evidence of State's corrective actions.

Central American Police Training: State and USAID Should Ensure Human Rights Content Is Included as Appropriate, and State Should Improve Data

GAO-18-618
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of State The Secretary of State should ensure that the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) designs internal control mechanisms to ensure human rights content is included in INL-funded police training for El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as appropriate. (Recommendation 1)
Open
State concurred with this recommendation in its official comment letter included as an appendix in GAO-18-618, published in September 2018. State noted that it intends to amend templates for relevant implementing documents to address human rights as appropriate. In February 2020, State officials indicated that they had expressly included requirements for human rights components in new police training agreements established since we made our recommendation, and, in May 2020 and January 2021, provided some examples of those requirements. We continue to work with State to learn about internal control mechanisms they may establish to help ensure its training continues to include police training as appropriate. As of February 2024, State indicated that they intended to issue a cable later in the calendar year to issue guidance to certain embassies that would address related topics.

Economic and Commercial Diplomacy: State and Commerce Could Build on Efforts to Improve Coordination and Effectiveness

GAO-22-105860
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of State The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Commerce should ensure their agencies' indicate whether Deal Team participants have the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities to contribute and, if not, include a plan with timeframes on how they will address this issue in their guidance cables for the Deal Team Initiative. (Recommendation 9)
Open
As of April 2023, we continue to monitor State's actions in response to this recommendation.

Global Cybercrime: Federal Agency Efforts to Address International Partners' Capacity to Combat Crime

GAO-23-104768
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of State The Secretary of State should instruct the Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of capacity building efforts to counter cybercrime. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Human Rights: Agency Actions Needed to Address Harassment of Dissidents and Other Tactics of Transnational Repression in the U.S.

GAO-24-106183
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of State The Secretary of State should ensure that the Assistant Secretaries for Political-Military Affairs and Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor include steps to coordinate with and collect information on TNR from other agencies, such as the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, in its new procedures specific to Section 6 of the Arms Export Control Act. (Recommendation 4)
Open
In its written comments on the report, State concurred with this recommendation and said it will take steps to implement it. GAO will continue to monitor State's actions in response to this recommendation.
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