Export Promotion: Increases in Commercial Service Workforce Should Be Better Planned
GAO-10-874
Published: Aug 31, 2010. Publicly Released: Aug 31, 2010.
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Highlights
Since the recent recession, policymakers have emphasized the role exports can play in strengthening the U.S. economy and in creating higher paying jobs. In March 2010 the President signed an Executive Order creating the National Export Initiative (NEI), with a goal of doubling U.S. exports in 5 years. However, since 2004 the workforce of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service (CS) has shrunk, calling into question the ability of this key agency to increase its activities to assist U.S. businesses with their exports. In response to a conference committee mandate, GAO reviewed (1) how well CS managed its resources from 2004 to 2009, and (2) the completeness of CS's workforce plans and the quality of its fiscal year 2011 budget request. GAO analyzed data from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and State; reviewed agency documents; and interviewed agency officials.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Commerce | To better ensure CS effectively and efficiently uses its resources in support of its strategic goals and the President's National Export Initiative, the Secretary of Commerce should direct the Undersecretary for International Trade to strengthen management controls over CS's financial and workforce resources. | Commerce concurred with our recommendations and the Secretary of Commerce directed the International Trade Administration to use this report among other things, to develop stronger management controls. Commerce has taken several steps in response to the recommendation. First, in fiscal year 2012, Commerce completed a detailed program and unit level gap analysis with the goal of better understanding and assessing current demand, existing coverage, and market opportunities, based on solid data and sound professional judgments, and is using this analysis to shift resources to higher priority countries. Second, to strengthen management controls over its financial resources, CS started using... of a new Strategic Analysis Tool in October, 2011. The tool provides CS management with up-to-date information on funding, personnel, and requests by location and was used as the basis for making staffing and budget allocation decisions in fiscal year 2012. Third, ITA instituted a bi-weekly Resource Coordinator's meeting starting in mid-2011 at which topics such as budget and administration management are routinely discussed. Finally, we noted that CS lacked key workforce planning elements and that its personnel office was understaffed, thus making it difficult to handle the potentially large increase in staffing planned for in its fiscal year 2011 budget request, To further improve management control over workforce planning and decision-making, CS consolidated several personnel-related offices that had overlapping functions into the Office of Foreign Service Human Capital and elevated the role of this office by having it report directly to CS's Director General, whereas previously the different officers all reported to different managers. The new office is almost fully staffed as of June 2012.
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| Department of Commerce | To better ensure CS effectively and efficiently uses its resources in support of its strategic goals and the President's National Export Initiative, the Secretary of Commerce should direct the Undersecretary for International Trade to improve workforce planning and better align CS's workforce with its strategic goals and available resources on a routine basis. | Commerce concurred with our recommendations and the Secretary of Commerce said he had directed the International Trade Administration to use this report among other things, to develop stronger workforce planning. The Commercial Service has taken several steps in response. First, a new human capital plan, completed in June 2012, should help set strategic direction by aligning CS's human capital with its strategic priorities. Under this plan, CS also intends to develop data to support workforce decision making; strengthen the CS workforce through training; develop strategies to attract and hire staff; and improve its processes for evaluating and rewarding staff performance. These steps, if...
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| Department of Commerce | To better ensure CS effectively and efficiently uses its resources in support of its strategic goals and the President's National Export Initiative, the Secretary of Commerce should direct the Undersecretary for International Trade to improve cost estimating to better ensure that CS's budget estimate includes sufficient resources to support its planned operations and addresses potential risks. | In August 2010, GAO recommended that the Secretary of the Commerce should direct the Under Secretary for International Trade to improve cost estimating to better ensure that Commercial Service's budget estimate includes sufficient resources to support its planned operations and address potential risks. GAO found that U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service's (CS) 2011 budget request lacked a risk analysis and contingency plans that would help avoid overly optimistic cost estimates and cost overruns. A risk analysis would identify the assumptions driving the estimate, and provide a range of costs that spanned the best and worst case scenarios; among other things the budget lacked explanations...
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Agency missionsCost analysisEconomic stabilizationExport regulationExportingFinancial managementForeign trade policiesHiring policiesHuman capital managementHuman capital planningInternal controlsInternational tradeLabor forcePersonnel managementRisk assessmentStaff utilizationCost estimates