State Department: Wide Range of Emergency Services Provided to American Citizens Overseas, but Improved Monitoring Is Needed
GAO-09-989
Published: Sep 24, 2009. Publicly Released: Sep 24, 2009.
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Highlights
In 2008, the Department of State (State) estimated nearly 5 million U.S. citizens lived overseas, and 64 million trips were taken overseas by U.S. citizens. Since protecting and serving U.S. citizens abroad are among State's chief priorities, State must be prepared to provide emergency assistance to Americans abroad. This report describes (1) what services State provides to U.S. citizens who are the victims of crimes, suffer accidents, or otherwise need emergency services; (2) how State is prepared to assist U.S. citizens who are in need of emergency services; and (3) how State monitors the assistance it provides to U.S. citizens in need of emergency services.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of State | To ensure the Bureau of Consular Affairs has accurate and reliable data from the mechanisms used to monitor and evaluate its provision of emergency services worldwide, and therefore make informed resource allocation decisions, the Secretary of State should direct the Bureau of Consular Affairs to provide guidance on the information to be entered into the ACS system to ensure that data are consistently captured across posts and accurately reflect workload. |
In June and July 2012, in response to GAO's recommendation, the Bureau of Consular Affairs issued new guidance through its Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM), making it explicit that information related to cases such as welfare and whereabouts or arrests must be entered into the ACS system, whereas in the previous version of the FAM this was not the case. As a result, it is now clear to ACS staff what work must be entered into the ACS system, which will now allow posts to more accurately reflect their workload, and thus have improved information for making management decisions.
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| Department of State | To ensure the Bureau of Consular Affairs has accurate and reliable data from the mechanisms used to monitor and evaluate its provision of emergency services worldwide, and therefore make informed resource allocation decisions, the Secretary of State should direct the Bureau of Consular Affairs to improve functionality in the ACS system so that Consular Affairs and posts can use the system more effectively. | State concurred with the recommendation. In response, on December 11, 2009, State noted that it was developing a new system to replace ACS by the end of 2014 and that it was revising the Foreign Affairs Manual with clearer guidelines on what information should be entered into ACS. In 2012, State provided an update on the system that will replace ACS, ConsularOne. In addition, State noted that it had made improvements to ACS, including more rigorous and efficient processing of citizenship applications and passports and enhanced interaction between ACS and the data management and reporting software used for workload calculations and staffing adjustments. In June 2013, Stated noted that it...
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| Department of State | To ensure American citizens who experience an emergency overseas can easily find and identify emergency contact information on post Web sites, the Secretary of State should require posts' main Web site pages to include emergency contact information. | State concurred with the recommendation. In response, in December 2009, State sent all posts a cable noting that it agreed with GAO's recommendation and that posts should review their consular Web sites to ensure that emergency contact information was prominently displayed. In July 2012, GAO conducted a review of a sample of posts' Web sites and found that some still did not have emergency contact information prominently displayed on their homepages. Subsequently, the Bureau of Consular Affairs conducted a review of 35 post Web sites and found that each site contained emergency contact information. Also in July 2012, State sent another cable to all posts requesting that they ensure...
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| Department of State | To ensure American citizens who experience an emergency overseas can easily find and identify emergency contact information on post Web sites, the Secretary of State should periodically test the accuracy of the emergency contact information provided on the posts' main Web site pages. | State concurred with the recommendation. In response, in December 2009 State sent a cable to all posts with instructions to review their consular Web sites to ensure that emergency contact information was prominently displayed. In July 2012, GAO conducted a review of a sample of posts' Web sites and found that some still did not have emergency contact information prominently displayed on their homepages. Subsequently, State conducted a review of 35 post Web sites and found that each site contained prominently displayed emergency contact information. In August 2012, State noted that it had formed a working group to develop best practices for sharing emergency information on posts' Web...
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Americans abroadAmericans studying abroadArrestsConsulatesCrime victimsCrimesData collectionDiplomatsEmbassiesEmergency medical servicesEmergency preparednessEmergency responseEmployeesInformation managementInternational relationsInternational travelMonitoringPassportsStaff utilizationWebsitesPublic health emergencies