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Inspection of Embassy Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (ISP-I-03-39)

Embassy Port of Spain pursues an extensive agenda in furtherance of U.S. bilateral and regional objectives. However, over the past year, the embassy has been distracted by internal managerial, morale, and communication problems that have overshadowed its program efforts. The embassy now needs to put these problems behind it and focus on achievement of its MPP goals. In part, this will require changes in the embassy leadership's management approach; in part, the problems are a product of recent personnel turmoil and long-standing administrative problems. The embassy needs a more structured approach to address the major substantive issues and report on its activities. The administrative section is grappling well with cleaning up the legacy of past administrative failings. However, the section is overstretched and needs additional Foreign Service national (FSN) positions.

Both the political and public affairs sections require senior-level attention. Because INL programs are too large and too complex to be handled by a single person in an already burdened political section, the embassy needs to establish a narcotics affairs section headed by an experienced officer. The public affairs section tends to view itself as quasi-autonomous, contributing to mission goals and activities on its terms, not as a responsive mission element working under the embassy leadership.

With the continuing growth of other agencies' programs and personnel, the present embassy facilities are overstretched, posing major space, security, and safety concerns. For the long term, the embassy, in coordination with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), needs to identify a new chancery site. It also has to move promptly in considering midterm steps to ease its most pressing space problems, particularly in the management and consular sections. Management controls are in place, but vulnerabilities exist. The embassy needs funding for new positions to institutionalize and maintain a sound management controls program.