The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2022 19 I n 1792 the U.S. Congress autho- rized the creation of the consular service and began sending consuls to cities far and wide to serve the interests of Americans abroad. Consolation Prize is a podcast dedi- cated to telling the stories of these consuls and connecting their stories to the broader context of the history, international politics and conflict through which they lived. In conversations with consular service historians (yes, they exist), academics, authors and others over two seasons of episodes, host Abby Mullen covers little-known stories of American consuls abroad, including their involvement in everything from disease quarantines and shipwrecks to discovering new animal species and negotiating customs with the Ottoman Empire. Site of the Month: Consolation Prize (consolationprize.rrchnm.org) The appearance of a particular site or podcast is for information only and does not constitute an endorsement. Other factors also played a role in the ANDSF’s collapse. SIGAR found that no single country or agency had ownership of the ANDSF development mission. “The constant personnel turnover impeded continuity and institutional memory,” the report states. “The result was an uncoordinated approach that plagued the entire mission.” The State Department and USAID declined to comment on the report. Putting the “A” in DEIA at State A s the State Department reimagines the future of work for both domestic and overseas employees in the context of its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon says accessibil- ity must be at the core of any changes. A hybrid work environment is one step toward offering flexibility to eligible employees. “It’s clear that we are not going back to the status quo ante of Feb- ruary 2020, where most people come into the department every day,” McKeon told Federal News Network in May. Depending on employees’ jobs and functions—and their need to access clas- sified material—some may benefit from telework opportunities, he said. To evalu- ate this option, the State Department has developed a mobility assessment tool: a questionnaire that examines every posi- tion according to mission and function and calculates a “maximum telework eligibility score.” Another critical component of the department’s accessibility plan is the Access Center, a 2,400-square-foot hub that provides assistive technology to employees with disabilities. The largest of its kind in the federal government, the center was opened by GTM in December 2020 in Columbia Plaza. The center offers everything from ergonomic computer mice and key- boards to screen magnifiers, assistive listening devices and deaf-to-hearing communication systems. The State Department estimates that at least 17 percent of its Civil Service workforce has at least one disability. The department is also working to ensure there’s at least one residence at every overseas post that’s equipped for someone with a disability and has been going through a decades-long process of upgrading facilities. Promotion Panels Under Scrutiny T he State Department’s Office of the Inspector General found that more than a half-dozen friends and relatives of department officials were placed on promotion panels despite not meeting requirements, Politico reported onMay 25 . The OIG report, which was leaked to the news outlet, also noted inconsisten- cies in how people were chosen and weak oversight of contracts involved. Prompted by a 2020 whistleblower’s complaint, the probe found that “GTM’s Office of Performance Evaluation did not demonstrate that it considered all Foreign Affairs Manual criteria when recruiting and selecting FSSB public members” and that “family members of Department employees, including GTM/PE employ- ees, received public member contracts to serve on FSSBs or related boards … every year from 2014 to 2021.” The report noted that public members of the promotion boards, which convene for between four and eight weeks during the summer, are paid for their time; some earned between $20,000 and $30,000 in 2019 and 2020. The report offered 13 recommenda- tions for improvement, all of which the State Department accepted in its response. n This edition of Talking Points was compiled by Julia Wohlers and Hannah McDaniel.