U.S. Department of State Fiscal Year 2020 Agency Financial Report

Through the Diplomatic Residential Initiative strategic priority, OBO is focused on improving the quality of life for American diplomats and their families and evaluating the housing portfolio’s compliance with life-safety and security codes and standards. The Facility Maintenance & Upkeep strategic priority promotes a full life-cycle approach to managing the Department’s global facility portfolio through a holistic and regionalized approach to maintenance and repair strategies that protect and preserve our world-wide assets. OBO made significant progress all three strategic priorities in 2020, despite challenges related to COVID-19. Ensuring the Health and Safety of Personnel Abroad The Department’s emphasis on fostering and sustaining a healthy, resilient, and engaged global workforce for optimal performance is incorporated into M’s High Five action plan. The Department is expanding resilience support and training activities through ongoing outreach and other efforts, and is now establishing these activities virtually. For example, M spearheaded the TalentCare initiative, a collaborative effort that brings together access to information and programs for employees that focus on processes and policies that promote well-being, family, safety, and flexibility. Residential Safety The Department recognizes the need to increase the safety, security, functionality and resiliency of the Department’s overseas housing pool. As part of the Diplomatic Residential Initiative, a key task within the M High Five’s Security & Infrastructure priority, OBO developed and released the Quality of Life Survey to assess posts’ satisfaction with the quality of housing and evaluate compliance with life-safety and security codes and standards. The results lay the groundwork for post-level analytics reports, and allow OBO to identify non-compliant housing and prioritize the Department’s housing needs, either through acquisition of new or modernizing existing diplomatic housing. 2 M anagement and O versight of C ontracts , G rants , and F oreign A ssistance In response to the OIG recommendations, the Department took a number of actions to improve oversight of contracts and grants, including those that appear below. The Department will continue to take steps to address OIG’s recommendations. Monitoring and Documenting Contractor and Grantee Performance As a result of the recent OIG audit, the Global Engagement Center (GEC) took significant steps to enhance management and oversight of its grants. To begin, the GEC onboarded its required complement of Grants Officers and is in the continuing process of hiring additional Grants Officer Representatives as funding becomes available. GEC reviewed and updated its Grants Policy and Procedure Manual, conducted focused staff training sessions, and updated work templates and job aids to ensure that grants staff properly apply the relevant policies. GEC reviewed and revised performance standards and commitments for multiple employees and developed new policies, processes, and procedures recommended by the OIG to maximize the effectiveness of the awards and grants. Finally, the GEC completed a staffing needs assessment, as well as a strategic personnel review that strategically prioritizes the hiring of additional Government managers and monitoring and evaluation specialists, prior to expanding its programming efforts. This comprehensive approach ensures the GEC can proficiently execute its statutory mandate to lead and coordinate Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign 132 | U ni ted S tates D epartment of S tate 2020 A gency F inanci al R eport OTHER INFORMATION | MANAGEMENT’S RESPONSE TO INSPECTOR GENERAL