Luanda, Angola

Overview:

One of Africa's major oil producers, Angola is striving to tackle the physical, social and political legacy of a 27-year civil war that ravaged the country after independence.  Following the withdrawal of the Portuguese colonial masters in 1975, the rival former independence movements competed for power until 2002.  Much of Angola's oil wealth lies in Cabinda province, where a decades-long separatist conflict simmers.  The government has sent thousands of troops to subdue the rebellion in the enclave, which has no border with the rest of Angola. Human rights groups have alleged abuses against civilians. Joao Lourenco became the country's first new president in 38 years in September 2017. 

Source:  BBC Country Profile

American Embassy Luanda:

As mentioned in the Banjul blog our arrival in Luanda was delayed by three days because our connecting flight was delayed from Banjul to Lisbon through Madrid.  I had been to Luanda in 2002 for the previous OIG inspection.  At that time, we stayed in the nice hotel Tropico.  However, this time there were no rooms available in the Tropical because Texaco had reserved all the rooms for a conference.  The Hotel Mundial that the embassy arranged for us was barely a Three-Star. The Management Officer, Margaret Hartley, was very apologetic that they couldn’t find better accommodations.   My colleague, Rick Jones, the other management inspector was responsible for facilities and general services had a lot of findings.  There were not a lot of formal recommendations in my area Human Resources and Financial Management.  In fact, the Financial Management Officer (FMO), Heny Yang was on his first tour and he would ask me all kinds of questions, which I was happy to answer.  It turns out Henry ended up as the FSN Payroll Chief at the CGFS finance center in Bangkok. 

Findings:

Recommendations made for facilities and general services (GSO) in the OIG report included the need for space planning, a new emergency generator and funding for a new warehouse.  Also, funding for a fitness center and changing rooms.  GSO should solicit bids E-Travel service contract and implement use of blanket purchase agreements for its freight forwarding/packing and other frequently purchased items.  Conduct a residential lease survey and a management control review of its property management function.  Lastly, require the accountable property officer to document its 2008 annual inventory in accordance with Department regulations for nonexpendable property and the expendable supply system. 

Human resource findings included hiring a direct-hire office management specialist to work for the deputy chief of mission.  There was an ethical question raised with respect to an embassy staff accepting the gift of day care services from the Angolan state oil company.  The Local Compensation plan should be amended to include transportation and vacation allowance plus there should be a health insurance contract local staff.  The embassy local staff needed customer service training. 

Highlights:

There was not much to do in Luanda but seafood was plentiful and we did manage to get out to eat.   
We also visited the Benfica Market just outside Luanda and bargained for local handicrafts including paintings, jewelry, textiles and baskets. Bargaining was required. 

Luanda Corniche and Skyline

Horrendous traffic going to the embassy everyday

Angola is a prime spot for illegal ivory trade

Poorer section of Luanda

  

Just south of Luanda is the peninsula of Mussulo, which is known for its beach.  The peninsula is 18 miles long and a mile and a half wide, boasting a lovely beach that offers great views of the city beach huts and restaurants.  

Brian and me eating shellfish on the peninsula.

Madrid, Spain

Highlights:

• Nice to have a weekend in Madrid just to sightsee.

• Besides visiting all the popular tourist sites I ate a some good Spanish restaurants and tasted their cuisine.  One place near the Royal Palace was the La Mi Venta which featured the best Iberian ham in Madrid.  Besides the ham they had a good selection of Tapas and Pinchos, which was skewered meat, from Northern Spain Basque region.  

Prado Museum with classic paintings by famous artists like El Greco, Grancisco Goya 

and Diego Velazquez 

The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch

Fuente de Cibeles and Gran Via

Plaza Mayor

Royal Palace and Gardens

Cathedral de la Almudena

La Mi Venta 

Banjul, The Gambia

Overview:

The Gambia is one of Africa's smallest countries and, unlike many of its west Africa neighbors, has enjoyed long spells of stability since independence.  President Yahya Jammeh ruled the country with an iron fist after seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1994. His 22-year rule came to an end in 2016, when he was defeated in a shock election result by the main opposition candidate, Adama Barrow.  Jammeh only left office after mediation by neighboring countries and the threat of armed intervention.  Stability has not translated into prosperity. Despite the presence of the Gambia River, which runs through the middle of the country, only one-sixth of the land is arable and poor soil quality has led to the predominance of one crop - peanuts.  Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange, as is the money sent home by Gambians living abroad. Most visitors are drawn to the resorts that occupy a stretch of the Atlantic coast.  

Source:  BBC Country Profiles

American Embassy Banjul:

Ambassador Mike Senko, who had served as Ambassador to the Marshall Islands and Kiribati, was our team leader.  He had been a Marine sergeant and didn't take any guff.  He was quite distinguished and wore a very formal Stetson hat.   He had succeeded Joan Plaisted, who was my DCM in Rabat, Morocco, as Ambassador.  Small world the Foreign Service.

This was my first overseas inspection after retiring.  Brian Mohler, POL/ECON, was deputy team leader, other team members were Kathryn Berck, Rick Jones, Christopher Mack, and Patrick Whalen.  Patrick was a Diplomatic Security inspector on his first inspection. He only stayed with the OIG for a couple of years and transferred to DS.  His wife had delivered their second child and he wanted spend more time with his family.  Chris Mack ended up leaving for personal reasons.  

Our SPANAir flight out of Banjul on Friday, October 17 was delayed 8 hours into Madrid, consequently we missed our connection to Lisbon and remaining flights were fully booked.  Instead of going to Lisbon we were put up in a hotel in Madrid by the airline for the weekend and didn't arrive in Luanda until Monday, three days later.  The inspection took place between between October 8 and 16, 2008. See separate blog on the stay in Madrid.   

In addition to covering financial management and human resources I had to review information technology as well without a lot of previous experience to training.  The DCM, Brian Bachman, was also responsible for management but was a political cone officer without any management previous experience or training.   We recommended that the DCM retake the "How to be a Certifying Officer" course and pass the exam to be designated as the principal certifying officer for Embassy Banjul.  We didn't normally make recommendations for new positions but, in any case, no embassy should be without a management officer.  Other recommendations made included:

Findings:

We recommended that the embassy:

·       Conduct an internal control review in conjunction with the chief of mission annual management controls assurance.  There were issues with charging ORE staff time and transportation while working on representation functions to official residence expenses and amend the official residence expense servants' contracts to exclude overtime.  Also, require U.S. dollar payments for reimbursement of representation, travel claims, and travel advances be made by electronic funds transfers to employees' bank accounts.

·      Ensure that the information services center's server room is equipped with a power-off switch and request that the regional computer security office conduct a site audit on its computer infrastructure. Also, install the Call-Bill system and automate the process of reconciling telephone bills with the local service and enforce a policy that prohibits making local and long- distance personal calls from government phones.

·       Establish a contract with a local medical doctor.

•  Review the life, safety, and liability issues associated with the use of the embassy evacuation   boat and issue embassy administrative notice.

Highlights:

There was not much to do in Banjul proper.  We did get out to the port and only briefly visited the city and local market.  Our hotel was on the beach and had a nice pool.  We also got out to Juffure which  is famous, from Alex Haley's 1976 bestselling book 'Roots' and Kunte Kinte’s entry into slavery.   

                                                                          

James Island

  

Local Market

Juffure on the banks of the Gambia is described alternately as an 'unremarkable fishing village' on the banks of the river.   It is now also home to a World Heritage building housing a slavery museum. According to local spoken history, the founder of Juffure was Samba Taal, who migrating there in the early part of the 1500s, discovered that the Portuguese, as was their wont, had already arrived.

Favorite Jul Brew and peel and eat shrimp