Croatia's declaration of independence in 1991 was followed by four years of war and the best part of a decade of authoritarian nationalism under President Franjo Tudjman. By early 2003 it had made enough progress in shaking off the legacy of those years to apply for EU membership, becoming the second former Yugoslav republic after Slovenia to do so. Following protracted accession talks, Croatia took its place as the 28th member state of the EU on 1 July 2013. A country of striking natural beauty with a stunning Adriatic coastline, Croatia is again very popular as a tourist destination. Moderate conservative Kolinda Grabar-Kiratovic was elected Croatia's first female president in January 2015, narrowly beating Social Democrat incumbent Ivo Josipovic in a run-off vote. She pledged to kick-start the country's ailing economy. She had previously served as foreign minister, ambassador to the United States and NATO assistant secretary-general. The role of president is largely ceremonial. The president proposes the Prime Minister but it is for parliament to approve the nomination.
Source: BBC Country Profile
American Embassy Zagreb:
Embassy Zagreb is a midsized mission involving 11 agencies. The DCM was Patrick Moon who went on to become Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the final exit briefing, where the final field draft of the OIG report is reviewed with normally the Ambassador and DCM, and on occasion the entire senior staff, the DCM took exception to some language I had written about representation, which, if I recall correctly, I omitted or changed. The Management Officer was Dorothy Sarro very capable administrator. I had an interesting exchange with Dorothy regarding our team arrival coinciding high-level visitors the same week. She wanted to make sure that Marshall was invited to the Charge’s for dinner with the visiting Assistant Secretary for EUR, Beth Jones and General Charles Williams the head of the Office of Overseas Buildings (OBO). Lt. General Williams had a distinguished military career as the head of the Army Corps of Engineers and spent seven years heading up OBO. Norman Thatcher Scharpf held the combined FMO/HRO position, which was strange to me depending on the background and expertise of the individual. My first exposure to such a position I did stop at FSC/Paris in route to post for consultations and hooked up with my former colleague Don Simmons, USDO.
Findings:
A major project affecting the embassy's future
operations is the ongoing construction of a new New Embassy Compound (NEC) due to be completed in 2003.
Planning for that move and its implications for overall U.S. operations
occupies much of management's attention.
The embassy needed to explore ways
to increase the amount of usable warehouse space on the new embassy compound
and consolidating USAID office space. Formal
proposals should be vetted with the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations and
the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services (ICASS) council. There
were examples of unauthorized commitments for the NEC project that needed to be
adjudicated and ratified. Also, OIG
found examples of improper certification of vouchers from the contractor. Both of these issues required internal
controls to be established to prevent a reoccurrence. There was also confusion over who is
responsible for the NEC contracting be the Bureau of Overseas
Buildings Operations (OBO) or embassy General Services Office (GSO) which needed
to be clarified. The NEC was located out
in the suburbs, quite a distance from downtown Zagreb and the old embassy. It was unclear if there was even bus service
for local staff. There was also insufficient
parking near the embassy compound for visitors to the consular section and employees.
There were 21 formal and 39 informal recommendations in
the OIG report. There were several
problems with General Service Operations (GSO) which required recommendations in the report to be fixed
including: lack of separation of duties
in keeping inventory records; the Real Property Application was not kept up to
date. The embassy pays utility costs
directly to the city based on an unofficial meter, which is not approved by the
city. GSO
does not provide the housing questionnaires completed by new employees to the
housing board before housing is assigned and there were issues with how housing
was allocated. There were no written procedures for processing Blanket
Purchasing Agreements and establishing obligations of funding with financial
management.
In terms of financial management services there were examples of inappropriate receipts and expenditures the suspense deposit abroad account that needed to be identified and paid or deposited into the U.S. Treasury. The embassy should immediately start making U.S. dollar disbursements to U.S. direct-hire personnel via electronic funds transfer not by cash or check as mandated by the Government Performance a Results Act. The accountable consular officer should submit the Monthly Consular Receipts report to the Management Officer, who should perform a monthly verification. The embassy does not maintain a centralized accounts receivable system for maintaining bills of collections as required by regulations. There were several informal recommendations to improve internal controls in the area of cashier operations and automating issuing travel authorizations and processing vouchers.
Highlights:
- Sightseeing in Zagreb and shopping central market
- Trip to Plitvice National Park with Jim Martino while most of the other team members flew to Split, on the Dalmatian coast, for the weekend.
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| Ban Lelacic Square or Republic Square |
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| Early 12th Century Neo Gothic Cathedral of Zagreb |
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| Central "Dolac" Market |
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