Inspection of Embassy Zagreb, Croatia (ISP-I-03-10)

Embassy Zagreb, for the most part, has the right personnel and administrative resources to perform its job. Although the staff appears large for a country the size of Croatia, many staff with OBO or the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will be phased out as the new embassy compound is completed and Croatia graduates from the Support for East European Democracy (SEED) program. The remaining staff is appropriate for the embassy’s mission.

The Department and OMB have reduced assistance from the SEED program to Croatia and other countries in the region. There was little consultation on the cuts with affected embassies and little evidence of any objective assessment of the decision’s implications for broader U.S. interests in Croatia and the region. Embassy Zagreb should provide an assessment of those implications for the Department.

Although the embassy has fully addressed the policy priorities established in coordination with the Department, neither the embassy nor the Department has fully integrated economic issues into those priorities. Economic issues are fundamental to most U.S. interests in Croatia and now need to be given more concerted attention.

Development of the new embassy compound was initiated in 1999, and the project is progressing rapidly. The embassy provided strong support to the OBO team and worked very well with the Department to keep the project on track. It also established an effective planning mechanism to prepare for the move and to anticipate problems associated with it.