Embassy New Delhi, India and Constituent Posts - OIG - US ...

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and include the Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of
Justice.
As a Tier 1 post, Embassy New Delhi should have consolidated by October 1, 2007, the
15 administrative services agreed by the State/USAID Joint Management Council. However,
efforts have fallen short. USAID maintains duplicative services in the areas of LE staff
recruiting, nonprogrammatic procurement, and travel management services, contending that
responsiveness, convenience, and the de minimis nature of its consumption of the services justify
the redundancy. The embassy should consolidate these services to eliminate the duplication and
possibly free up office space.
Recommendation 1: Embassy New Delhi should consolidate all travel, locally employed staff
recruiting, and nonprogrammatic procurement services that the U.S. Agency for International
Development currently provides separately. (Action: Embassy New Delhi)
Embassy New Delhi has a temporary waiver allowing USAID to operate a separate
warehousing operation pending construction of a new warehouse facility on the U.S.
Government-owned enclave compound. The new facility will provide only a fraction of the
storage space now available, which argues for reducing stock levels by taking measures such as
pooling furniture. More broadly, this warehouse consolidation would conform to Department
guidance issued in 09 State 049647, which asks chiefs of mission to “establish and maintain
consolidated support platforms under ICASS [International Cooperative Administrative Support
Services].”
Recommendation 2: Embassy New Delhi should reduce duplication and inefficiency in
nonexpendable supply and property management by establishing a pool for furniture,
furnishings, and appliances under International Cooperative Administrative Support Services.
(Action: Embassy New Delhi)
India 2020 and Future Consulates General
In the near future, Mission India expects an enormous increase in nonimmigrant visa
(NIV) workload. In 2005, the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) contracted a futures study, which
projected that NIV work would grow in India by 7 percent per year during the next 15 years.
That projection was close to the mark in FYs 2009 and 2010. However, because much NIV work
in India involves Indians travelling for business or temporary work, the weak economy in the
United States appears to have suppressed NIV demand in India in the past 2 years. The numbers
of business and temporary worker visas are increasing again as the U.S. economy gains strength.
Based on the statistics since October 1, 2010, NIV workload in India in FY 2011 may grow by
15 percent. If this trend persists, the futures study projection will prove too conservative.
In the long run, even that projection would mean a near-doubling in NIV workload over
the next 9 years; Mission India could be looking at an estimated 1.18 million NIV applications
by FY 2020, up from a workload of 605,513 applications in FY 2010. The mission would need
approximately 41 more consular officers to adjudicate that workload increase; that would be on
top of the 94 consular officers currently assigned to Mission India.
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