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

Enabling mission success for the end user continues to be the dominant influence in our technology decision making activities, and these efforts have come into even sharper focus with the shift to remote work. The Department’s Field First initiative to align technology to conduct diplomacy on the foreign affairs frontlines continues, with a new Chief Architect now in place. Under the Field First initiative, the Department is identifying existing IT gaps, costs to close them, and establishing post- specific roadmaps for implementation. Preliminary analysis shows that our greatest needs overseas are bandwidth, collaboration tools, and new equipment. IRM has been working with the Bureau of Administration to deploy an IT Service Management portal in myServices that will manage employee requests for IT solutions. The OIG found that numerous control weaknesses affected program effectiveness and increased the chance of cyberattacks and threats to the Department. In 2020, the Department has expanded upon its cyber risk framework. For example, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is working with IRM to implement additional Wi-Fi security access protocols in order to mitigate potential misuse of the FSI network. The EGB has also met to discuss cybersecurity at the enterprise level, to ensure the Department is doing everything it can to counter adversaries in the cyber realm. The Department continues to deliver analytics products for assessing Department challenges and are enhancing data and analytics capacity, fostering a culture of data governance, and modernizing our technical infrastructure to support data and analytics. The Department’s need for an agile Center for Analytics was demonstrated in second quarter with the creation of the COVID-19 Data Analytics Team (CDAT). The CDAT is working to develop a framework for constructing a data inventory, and coordinated and prepared data to enable successful tracking, analysis, and reporting on a variety of critical issues, including repatriations, Authorized and Ordered Departures, and other global and regional data on a near real-time basis. 4 F inancial and P roperty M anagement The Department operates in a complex and challenging global environment and, as a result, manages one of the U.S. Government’s most complex financial operations. Operating around the clock in over 270 locations and 180 countries, the Department conducts business in over 138 currencies, accounts for $100 billion in assets, maintains 236 bank accounts around the world, executes over 6,100 annual foreign currency purchases and sales valued at over $6 billion, and manages real and personal property capital assets with historical costs of more than $34 billion. As part of the High Five theme of Excellence and Innovation, the Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services (CGFS) is updating the Department’s resource management processes and systems, including a new version of the Global Financial Management System. This will streamline and expedite processing financial transactions. CGFS is also working to automate and streamline financial operations through process enhancements and technology innovations, including the increased use of Robotic Process Automation, or "bots." For 2020, CGFS implemented 12 new bot processes for a total of 20 bots in financial services operations. Bots to create vendor records and receivables have supported the timely billing of more than 22,000 U.S. citizens repatriated on Department-funded COVID-19 evacuation flights. As part of the High Five theme of Security and Infrastructure, the Bureau of Administration is working to optimize the management of the Department’s domestic real property assets. Internal Control Deficiencies In December 2019, MED and CGFS announced plans to implement a new process that will provide for consistent processing of Special Needs Education Allowance (SNEA) reimbursements for employees at post. Furthermore, under the guidance and 134 | 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