Vilnius, Lithuania

Overview:

Lithuania is the largest and most southerly of the three Baltic republics.  The country regained its independence during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. The last Russian troops withdrew in 1993. Lithuania subsequently restructured its economy for integration into Western European institutions; it joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004. In 2015, Lithuania joined the euro zone, and it joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2018.

American Embassy Vilnius:

The inspection took place from October 8-17, 2001.  Another quick inspection of essentially seven workdays. For this inspection I focused on management, human resources and financial management. Joanne Thompson joined the team as the second management inspector and covered facilities and general services.  I believe that Joanne did not last long with OIG and this may have been her only overseas inspection.  The embassy was well run but as noted below more agency involvement was required with the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services (ICASS) council.  The Management Officer was John Gieseke, who had served in the Middle East and you could tell by all the carpets he had in his office.  Since there was no American Human Resources Officer there should be a MOU with the Frankfurt Regional Support Center to provide support in this area.  I was impressed with the Foreign Service National (FSN) Senior Financial Management Specialist.  Her name was Ramune Bieksiene and is still working at the embassy to this day as far as I know.  

Findings:

• Establish an interagency working group within ICASS and complete an annual assessment.

• Prepare supporting documentation and request funding to meet embassy space requirements.

• The Regional Support Center in Frankfurt schedule visits to Embassy Vilnius to provide human resources support. 

• The embassy should inventory all nonexpendable property in selected residence, assign nonexpendable property application information, and place an entry log at the alarm site to record access, deactivation, and reactivation of the alarm system.  Also, respond to open recommendations in the Office of Safety/Health and Environmental Management's April 2000 report to ensure the safety of embassy employees.

• With the the passing of the Government Performance and Results Act the Department mandated that payments be made by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).  This applied to having Foreign Service National (FSN) salaries deposited to employee bank accounts and in processing payments to local vendors overseas.

• Install the Electronic Certification System hardware and software and coordinate with the Paris Financial Service Center to provide the necessary training to begin transmitting data for payment transactions electronically. 

• Ensure that supervisors of sub cashiers perform unannounced cashier verifications on a monthly or quarterly basis as required by regulations. 

Highlights: 

• Besides visiting the sites below, we attended a concert of classical music in the old hall in the old town.  

• Lithuanian food was influenced by Baltic, Russian and German cuisine.  Potato dumplings, fried bread, beetroot soup, chilled borscht, mushroom cookies, fried curd cakes and potato pancakes were most traditional dishes.   

The capital of Lithuania, Vilnius is the biggest and most beautiful city in the country. Vilnius was first mentioned in 1323 in the letters of Lithuania’s great ruler Grand Duke Gediminas, who invited craftsmen and merchants from all over Europe to settle here. Today it is a modern city with 542,000 citizens. The city has a stunning array of Baroque and Gothic architecture and one of the largest Old Towns in Central and Eastern Europe, which takes up 360 hectares and is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Gates of Dawn on the edge of the Old Town is one of the most renowned sacred places for Catholics around the world. The focus is the Chapel in the Gates of Dawn and its 17th century icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the 20th century, the image of Mary was named the Mother of Mercy, and inside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter and Paul in Rome a chapel was created in her honor.

  

  

St. Anne’s Church (16 cent.) is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture famous for its intricate and beautiful facade ornamented with red-brick twists and turns and three graceful towers. Next to St. Anne’s stands the ensemble of St. Francis’ and Bernadine Church, the latest discovery at which are several frescoes hidden from view for several centuries under a layer of plaster. 

Upper Castle on Gediminas Hill, built many
centuries ago,

  

The Church of St. Peter and Paul is a masterpiece of Vilnius Baroque. It was built in the 17th century with its wondrous interior decorations of more than 2,000 sculptures and bas-reliefs

Minsk, Belarus

Overview:

Belarus is a poor, highly repressive former Soviet republic with little to offer in the way of jobs and other opportunities. Aleksandr Lukashenko has steadily consolidated his power through authoritarian means and a centralized economic system. Government restrictions on political and civil freedoms, freedom of speech and the press, peaceful assembly, and religion have remained in place. The current migrant situation has some remaining in place as opposed to returning to their home countries or facing off against Polish soldiers and border guards.  

American Embassy Minsk:

American embassy in Minsk opened in 1992 and was part of the Department’s Special Embassy Program.   The inspection took place from October 1-8, 2001 shortly after the September 11 attacks which made us a little anxious to travel.  This trip was the first of four embassies to be inspected, in the Baltic region with other embassies including Vilnius, Lithuania; Riga, Latvia and Tallinn, Estonia.  

This was a very challenging inspection for me since I was still relatively new to OIG just after 9/11 and we only had a week.   I was essentially the lead Management Inspector responsible making travel arrangements for the team and facilitating communications with embassy Minsk before our arrival.  I also had to train a brand new inspector and I had never inspected facilities or general services.  

Fred was kind enough to take the time to write an excellent appraisal of my performance.  I ran into Fred at a fitness club in downtown Falls Church after his permanent retirement around 2010.  He was living in McLean and doing well.  Thanks to Administrative Officer Tom Burke who arranged for our accommodations, orientation to Minsk and a couple of excursions for us.   Among the findings were:

Findings:

The embassy was alarmingly overcrowded and in need of major renovation. The office of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) needed to renovate the facilities as quickly as possible and then to maintain them.  An additional contractor from Pacific Architects and Engineers to assist in the maintenance of the embassy complex and reassess reassess the regional coverage for facilities maintenance.     A motor pool dispatcher should be hired.  Morale among local staff was a problem.  An offshore retirement program for should be established for local employees and the Regional Financial Service Center in Paris should provide Embassy Minsk with an annual summary of the amount of U.S. government contributions made toward retirement for each employee going back to 1992, or as far back as records are available.  Erroneous charges to the embassy Overseas Buildings Operations allotment 2221 for budget fiscal years 1997, 1999, and 2000 should be corrected.  Consular receipts for January through September 2001 should be reported.

Robert Raynor (Management), me, Ambassador Fred Rondon, Team Leader and Joe Lahnstein walking to the Embassy. Fred (Fernando) was the former Ambassador to Ecuador and Madagascar and worked at the NSC.   Other team members not pictured were Don Bramonte (Deputy), Bill Belcher (DS), and Carl Troy (CONS).   It was nice travelling again with Bill and my first time with Carl who was a lot of fun especially when we got together for drinks, after dinner.             

 The 3-star Planeta Hotel is located in the center of Minsk. The Old   Town, Jewish Memorial and Opera and Ballet Theatre are located   nearby. The hotel was reconstructed in 2001 and is convenient to the   embassy.  Rooms quite spartan with slat bed and thin mattress.  Food   was very basic Russian fare and not much better in town, although there was a McDonald's.

Victory Square

Fellow team members and embassy staff and families out on an excursion to Mir Castle, historic 16th century fortified castle.

Mir Castle