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

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Outsourcing Public Relations and Logistics for Cultural Performances
Organizing performing arts programs is labor intensive. PAS India undertook
experiments to produce high-impact programs in large public venues, multiplying their reach
through television coverage. To make that happen, PAS outsourced some of the public relations
and administrative work. While the first attempt was not a flawless operation, PAS learned
quickly and the next two projects went off well. The OIG team believes that the kind of
outsourcing PAS New Delhi is doing has potential relevance to PAS operations in other
countries.
Consular Affairs
Mission India has one of the four largest consular operations in the world, with a staff of
320 employees; the other largest consular operations are in Mexico, China, and Brazil. Consular
work in India plays a central role in the bilateral relationship by contributing to the growing
people-to-people ties. In the opinion of the OIG team, the teamwork and coordination among the
members of the consular team in all five posts in India is arguably the strongest of any large
consular operation in the world. While several areas of consular operations can be strengthened,
consular managers were aware of most of these issues and in some cases had already taken the
first steps to address them.
Consular Team India
Consular leaders in the mission, led by the minister-counselor for consular affairs
(MCCA) in New Delhi and the consular section chief in New Delhi, launched Consular Team
India (CTI) in September 2009. Its basic goal is to integrate the resources, talent, leadership,
policies, and procedures of the five consular sections in India. Through this strategic
collaboration, each post takes the lead in coordinating different subjects: Mumbai coordinates
consular outreach; Hyderabad, knowledge management and crisis preparedness; Chennai,
training and professional development; New Delhi, metrics; and Kolkata analyzes future
workloads and resource needs. Employees, both American and LE staff, at every level have roles
to play in CTI, including helping to host and participate in conferences that are held on a rotating
basis among the posts. Consular managers conduct countrywide conference calls once a week in
several different subject areas. Consular employees are constantly exchanging information and
ideas and taking advantage of a consular SharePoint site for Mission India. The unusually high
number of innovative practices identified by the OIG team from consular operations in India is
evidence of the creativity and innovation that has resulted from these interactions.
CTI is already proving its worth. Throughout India, ELOs and LE staff as well as
consular managers spoke approvingly of concrete benefits from the program. Some employees
noted, however, that more coordination means more clearances and more time spent getting
input from five posts on everything. As the mission started this program less than 2 years ago,
consular staff still needs to do more to integrate consular operations. Consular managers are
aware of most of the issues they need to work on through the ideas that have been generated
from the many conferences, the visits among posts, and the almost daily interactions through
emails, phone calls, and SharePoint. In the opinion of the OIG team, CTI is a model for how
large multipost consular operations should be integrated. While there are resources attached to all
this complex activity, the benefits are significant. The next generation of consular leaders in
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