ICASS AFSA Survey Results - American Foreign Service Association

1. ICASS does not understand USAID's regulations and are not willing to learn. 2. EXO has to spend an extraordinary amountof time micro managing. For example, ICASS provides leasing and maintenance services. However, there is no feedbackmechanism or priority given to emergencies. USAID has to have one of its employee serve as the middle person to work withmaintenance to provide feedback to the employee. 3. Motor pool: ICASS drivers don't know USAID's project sites. In someposts, USAID had to enter into a separate contract for taxi services as 75% of USAID's motor pool requests are denied.Much higher costs, much lower service. State/ICASS is not accountable to its customers and has limited incentives to providebetter services. Also, State/ICASS personnel are not evaluated on their ability to provide better cost effective services to theircustomers. This results in an arrogant (in the sense that they refuse to respond to customer complaints or suggestions) andunaccountable service provider. Moreover, I have found that very few State/ICASS employees even fully understand the rulesof ICASS.Priorities of State led diplomacy will always trump development priorities. This will negatively affect our business model goingforward.Over burdened with inter-agency meetings- also known as USAID briefing State, USAID hardly derives any benefit from interagencymeetings, and they take up valuable project management time. We can no longer meet freely with partners/HCN/HostGovernment due to security/entrance restrictions at Embassy. Forced to work in depressing, soul-crushing embassy (giving uphistorical USAID building). ICASS is a joke- Motor pool is less reliable than a broken watch, Housing (and many of the other"cost saving elements" actually end up costing USAID much more, and are less suited to our needs, USAID does not enjoy aprivate space, the space we are provided does not meet our needs (not enough meeting rooms, insufficient computer space,not much room for expansion, no green space, etc). In short- I am not a fan, and in the future I shall only be bidding on Postswhere consolidation has NOT occurred.Motor pool is a significant challenge of consolidation. It is difficult to get a car - even when I have a confirmed online booking.This had a big impact on family morale when we first arrived as we had to walk everywhere or take less than safe taxis. Myspouse felt imprisoned. Yesterday, I was 1 hour late for a meeting as my confirmed car booking didn't show and it took 3phone calls to get the issue resolved. Additionally my admin. assistant complains about ordering supplies as it takes muchlonger than it used to.Both quality and quantity of services decline as a result of consolidation. My mission has consolidated motor pool, warehousing,maintenance and other services, but most of the times, you need to beg before getting a car, property management is nottransparent and we need to be on the watch out to ensure that our supplies are well managed, our offices are so dirty anddusty because the number of janitors allocated to us is so low to cover all the needs, residence occupants are alwayscomplaining about the services received, and above all, the State management persons are not very collaborative andcustomer focused so that there are always conflicts between state and the other client agencies.State does not have the ability to contract at out for services effectively. As a result, their costs for providing services aresignificantly higher. They also tend to favor State employees for services and housing over USAID staff.USAID staff are affected and USAID management does not have the ability to address issues independently. Unlike State andother agencies, USAID FSDH staff go from one hardship post to another so the quality of our lives over the course of our careerare affected by the services we receive at post, particularly related to housing, etc. State Dept staff and those of other agencieson the other hand serve part or all of their careers in non-hardship posts where the quality of embassy services are lessimportant from a quality of life perspective. The decline in services is greatly affecting USAID staff morale and efficiency. Thishas been little more than a way for State to subsidize its operations with USAID appropriated OE funding. The old separate wayof operating worked much better.The ICASS management of financial resources is questionable and needs to be addressed systematically. The StateManagement Office appeared to be less versed in procurement regulations attached to various Congressional accounts. Forexample, once ICASS took over the motor pool a new fleet of Toyota vehicles that did not meet Buy American rules werepurchase. The ICASS council could not obtain a transparent accounting of the funds expended from the Management Office.USAID Senior Officers were not treated with the respect one would expect for equally ranked State Officers (e.g. MissionDirector arrived at post without having a residence. The issue persisted for nearly one year.).USAID and State are not always co-located and in some regions, our staff is more involved in the field than State. Mere costeffectivenessis not adequate reason for consolidation if the quality of the service is reduced -- this is one of the primary edictsof Government Procurement in the first place! If we are unable to get transportation that we need to do our jobs and we'restruggling for "our share" of the resources because now we share them with State, our ability to do our jobs could besignificantly impacted.Stress - what is going to be consolidated next? Every time a State person comes snooping around (usually after hours) youhave to wonder what is next... Workload - though they take something over, USAID must still manage it to push for qualityservice and control expenditures. No one seems to care that the taxpayers are getting hit harder...Additional Graphs