The Foreign Service Journal, February 2010

14 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0 USAID office where, before inter- views were conducted for new hires or staff were involved in deliberations to award grants or contracts, Foreign Service contracting officers would share the relevant federal policy re- lated to the action with all employees involved, briefing them on the “dos and don’ts” of the process to ensure that they followed policy. In some cases, these officers even sat in on interviews and new contract deliberations to ensure adherence to federal procurement rules. So surely State’s human resource FSOs can spend a mere 10 minutes training em- ployees involved in hiring EFMs to make sure they follow the rules, sitting in on interviews if necessary to ensure compliance. Here’s another problem: In spite of the Family Liaison Office’s best efforts to combat the practice, many local-hire job descriptions at U.S. embassies are written in ways that preclude spouses from qualifying for them. At one post where I served, a position for a nurse (to serve Americans) opened in our health unit, to the delight of a recently arrived spouse who was a registered nurse. However, the position called for a 4/4 level of Spanish, something not required even of consular officers at the post. She took her concerns to the management counselor, who defended the language in the job description. Again, if State is serious about EFM employment, all local embassy jobs, with rare exceptions, should be poten- tially available to them. Accountability for these employ- ment issues remains nebulous. The standard embassy management re- sponse to complaints seems to be to close ranks and defend the actions taken by staff, justified or not. In my own case, the management counselor I S P E A K I N G O U T