The Foreign Service Journal, March 2016

Using non-standard hiring practices to bring in staff to encumber positions traditionally reserved for Foreign Service officers has had a severe impact on the career paths of our FSOs and dealt a striking blow to workforce morale. A Legislative North Star Over the years, USAID has resorted to more than 30 dif- ferent hiring methods to keep the agency on track to meet its mission objectives. This number shows how astonish- ingly creative and tenacious USAIDmanagement can be when it comes to meeting its needs. While those traits are admirable, USAID’s effort to keep its work on behalf of the American people on track is precisely what has led it astray. It happens to all of us. We take shortcuts or, for bud- getary reasons, cut back in places that in the long run are not in our best interest to cut (e.g., healthy food, education, exercise, vacation). Like the proverbial frog sitting in a pot of slowly boil- ing water, USAID’s creative hiring approaches will mean that eventually we’ll come to realize that we are all sitting in a hot pool of trouble. As the AFSAUSAID vice president, I cannot stand idly by and allow that to happen. So how did we get here? First and foremost, the short- age of operating expense funds required to hire and train sufficient numbers of Foreign Service officers and civil servants led to the practice of hiring personal service contractors (PSCs) and program-funded Foreign Service Limited appoint- ments. As of December 2015, USAID reported 941 PSCs and 228 FSLs on its roster.We expect the number of FSLs 66 MARCH 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the AFSA USAID VP. Contact: swayne@usaid.gov or (202) 712-1631 USAID VP VOICE | BY SHARON WAYNE AFSA NEWS to go up after the HRConnect system is updated to correct for the large number of staff that have been miscoded. Using non-standard hiring practices to bring in staff to encumber positions tradi- tionally reserved for Foreign Service officers—followed by repeat extensions of the timeframes these temporary hires are supposed to work— has had a severe impact on the career paths of our FSOs and dealt a striking blow to workforce morale. It also represents a lost opportunity to leverage the skill and know-how of those in whomUSAID has already invested. Further exacerbat- ing the situation is the fact that now the agency lacks a transparent mechanism to account for the actual operat- ing expenses needed for staff and training. Fortunately, a legislative “north star”—in the form of a series of laws passed over the past 92 years—exists to help guide USAID back from the brink. There is much wisdom within the texts of the follow- ing laws: • The Rogers Act of 1924 recognized the need for a strong, professional Foreign Service by establishing it as a career requiring competitive examination, worldwide avail- ability, commissioning and merit-based promotion. The Foreign Service Institute was founded a year later to provide specialized training. • The Foreign Service Buildings Act of 1926 autho- rized the purchase, con- struction or lease of Foreign Service housing abroad, since the Rogers Act had eliminated personal wealth as a require- ment to join the Service. • The Foreign Service Act of 1946 further improved, strengthened and expanded the Foreign Service. ADirector General position, along with the Foreign Service Board and Board of Examiners, was created to improve its administration and uphold the principle of competitive entry. The legislation also called for maximum compat- ibility among the various U.S. Foreign Service personnel systems. • The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 unified existing non-military U.S. aid efforts and established the Agency for International Develop- ment to provide a program of assistance to underdeveloped nations with reporting back from the field. • The Foreign Service Act of 1980 created a Senior Foreign Service and stipulated that the president should normally appoint FSOs, not political supporters, as ambassadors. To do other- wise has a corrosive effect on the career Service and is an unfortunate squandering of the efforts that went into their careful selection, as well as of the long and varied experi- ence that professional career officers bring to senior assign- ments. Also, Foreign Service pay and allowances were raised and the career aspect was re-emphasized with entry capped at the FS-4 rank. As is evident, great minds across many generations have repeatedly come to the same conclusion: A strong, profes- sional, career Foreign Service is required to fulfill its mission and meet its congressionally mandated obligations. Following this legislative “North Star”will help USAID get back on track. It will take some time to address the consequences of the hiring decisions that got us to this point. However, assuming the agency can combine its creativity and tenacity with the commitment that the agency’s leadership now has, USAID’s FSOs can again emerge as the top develop- ment cadre they were created to be. n