My Travels: February 2011

Overview:

India is the world's largest democracy and, according to UN estimates, its population (1.33 billion in 2020) is expected to overtake China's in 2028 to become the world's most populous nation. As a rising economic powerhouse and nuclear-armed state, India has emerged as an important regional power. But it is also tackling huge, social, economic and environmental problems. Home to some of the world's most ancient surviving civilizations, the Indian subcontinent - from the mountainous Afghan frontier to the jungles of Burma and the coral reefs of the Indian Ocean - is both vast and varied in terms of people, language and cultural traditions. Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi stormed to power on a surge of popular expectation and anger at corruption and weak growth. Despite Mr Modi's polarising image, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) scored an unprecedented landslide victory in the May 2014 parliamentary elections. It was the first time in 30 years that a single party had won a clear parliamentary majority. Mr Modi fought on his record as chief minister of the economically successful state of Gujarat, promising to revitalize India's flagging economy. But his time in Gujarat was overshadowed by accusations that he did too little to stop the religious riots in 2001, which saw more than 1,000 people - mainly Muslims - killed.

Source: BBC Country Profile

American Embassy New Delhi:

A large OIG team was required to conduct the inspection of such a large mission. Ambassador Richard E. Hecklinger was our team leader. He served as Ambassador to Thailand 1999-2001 and also in high level positions with Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs and the Organization of Economic and Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Dick was easy going and not too demanding. I ended up on his team on the Russia inspection a couple of years later. Paul Reid, POL cone officer was DCM in Slovenia and had a tour in Paris with the OECD and coincidentally was a PCV in Zaire. We had three management inspectors including my boss Ralph Kwong and colleague Perry Adair again. I believe this was my first inspection with Tom Furey (CONS), Richard Behrend (POL) and Roger Cohen (IT) with whom I ended up working with on several other inspections. Tom became affectionately known as the Co-CLO because he took the lead in arranging all the tours and accommodations for the team travelling on weekends. Other inspectors included Sylvia Bazala (CONS), Craig S. Cheney (IT), Robert Eckert, Joseph M. Gardella, Mark Jacobs (PD), Mary O'Keefe (PD), James Pritchett, George L. Rivers, Iris Rosenfeld (Mgmt), and Lavon Sajona (Security). I worked with Lavon on the South Sudan and Sudan inspection and Mark on the Islamabad inspection. After the initial inspection of the embassy in New Delhi we split up into smaller teams and proceeded to the Consulates. I ended up going to Mumbai (the former Bombay) Chennai (formerly Madras) and Kolkata (the former Calcutta).

I knew a few of the staff in New Delhi including the FMO, Ralph Hamilton who I didn’t work with but attended conferences together. I remember the time in Vienna at the Albertina Museum when Ralph, Tom Quinzio and I visited the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition. Michael Bretz was the IMO at the embassy in Bangkok when I was at the CGFS financial service center. Mike married a Thai woman, Chovit, who ended up working in the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services (ICASS) service center in Washington. He tragically passed away recently. Gerry O’Brien was the Management Counselor who asked a lot of questions about working with the OIG after she retired, but never followed through. I had known the Consul General in Mumbai, Paul Folmsbee, a management cone officer who was in Tanzania during the 1998 embassy bombings and became the Executive Director of the Africa bureau. He was in Mumbai during the 2008 terrorist attack at the Taj Hotel where we stayed. He became the Ambassador to Mali in 2014.

The inspection took place in New Delhi, India, between February 3 and March 23, 2011; in Mumbai, India, between February 15 and 24, 2011; in Chennai, India, between February 18 and March 4, 2011; in Hyderabad, India, between 2 March 7 and 11, 2011; and in Kolkata, India, between March 7 and 11, 2011. Our original flight schedule was changed at the last minute due to the stormy weather in Chicago. Instead of flying American through Chicago we were routed out of Dulles to Frankfurt and then on to New Delhi. I remember sitting next to Lavon on the flight to Frankfurt and telling her I can't sleep on planes. . It was the only inspection where I actually overslept after the first day of arrival and missed our in-brief with the Ambassador. We also had a scare with a threatened US Government shutdown midway through the inspection. We flew on the local Jet Airways from New Delhi to Mumbai and Chennai and Spice Jet from Chennai to Kolkata and return to Delhi.

Findings:

Housing issues were the mission’s greatest management challenge. Finding affordable, quality housing was difficult, especially in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. We recommended that the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations plan to build apartment units on U.S. Government-owned land or plan to long-term lease housing.

Opening a new Consulate in Hyderabad required many management challenges including normalizing administrative support for other agency personnel under ICASS. Working with the local government to identify a site for the new consulate compound. Setting up a training schedule for local staff. Also, a formal American employees association needed to be established that could offer recreational and social activities.

A major financial issue concerned the payment of official residence staff salaries at the Consulates. During my work at CGFS/Charleston, with the passing of the Government Performance and Results (GFPRA), one of our primary goals was to cut down on making payments by check and cash especially for Locally Employed (LE) Staff salaries and instead pay by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) to bank accounts for both employees and vendors. However,, the Official Residence Expense (ORE) staff are considered personal servants of the Ambassador, DCM and Principal Officer and therefore should be paid directly and not by the embassy or Consulate. Over the years we have tried to get senior Department management to change the regulations to allow ORE staff to become regular employees but the Office of the Legal Advisor and Under Secretary for Management could never come to an agreement. To this day it’s still an issue and some posts continue to pay ORE staff both in cash and others by EFT. CGFS has made great strides in making EFT payments.

Another issue that affected the embassy and consulates was completing past due post differential surveys for all posts in the mission to justify maintaining the same level. Likewise, to submit hotel and restaurant surveys to establish per diem rates.

The Consulate in Kolkata had issues with GSO procurement not complying with acquisition regulations for proper competition, bid evaluation, and contract administration.

In addition to inspecting management sections in the embassy we were tasked with covering, what we called “Quality of Life” issues. That area encompassed the Community Liaison Office (CLO), American Embassy Employee Associations (AEEA), Medical Unit and American Schools. I inspected the Employee Associations in New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. The operation in New Delhi was massive with a very large commissary, restaurant and community center with annual income of over $4 million. There were issues with monitoring the monthly liquor and tobacco quotas at the embassy commissary. The Chennai employee association needed to install a point-of-sale inventory and accounting system in the commissary and the Mumbai was behind in submission a balance sheet and income statement.

An interesting activity when the team returned home was with the A/OIG, Harry Geisel, to hold what was called a "hot wash" to review the final "field" draft of the inspection report. Our boss, the Assistant IG for Inspections, Bob Peterson and each of the functional coordinators would meet with all the inspection team members to review the most significant findings in the report. Also, to highlight issues of interest to the Department, recommendations that would most likely produce opposition and savings or funds put to better use among others. This was a preliminary review to highlight significant findings. Of course, I had to stick around and respond to any financial management issues and then make sure all my worksheets with supporting documentation (evidence) were completed before I could go back home to Charleston.

Bob Peterson had been with the OIG since 1987 when he moved over from USIS. He became the AIG for Inspections in 2003. He was a great guy admired by everyone. Bob retired from the OIG in the spring of 2015. Sandy Lewis took over as AIG in July 2015.

Highlights:

We did a lot a lot of sightseeing in Mumbai: Prince of Wales Museum located in a heritage building, Mumbai City Museum and National gallery of Modern Art

Took a road trip to Pondicherry, White Town the residential quarters of the French, for the weekend.

Stopped briefly in Mamallapuram to see the rock carvings.

Doris joined me towards the end of the inspection and were able to visit Agra, Rajasthan and Neemrana. See our travel blogs: Jaipur - India 2011 | Doris and Bill (dorisandbilltraveladventures.blogspot.com) and Neemrana Fort Palace - India 2011 | Doris and Bill (dorisandbilltraveladventures.blogspot.com) and Agra - India 2011 | Doris and Bill (dorisandbilltraveladventures.blogspot.com)

The construction of this marble masterpiece is credited to the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan who erected this mausoleum in the memory of his beloved wife, Arjumand Bano Begum, popularly known as Mumtaz Mahal, who died in AH 1040 (AD 1630). Her last wish to her husband was "to build a tomb in her memory such as the world had never seen before". Thus emperor Shah Jahan set about building this fairytale like marvel. The construction of Taj Mahal was started in AD 1631 and completed at the end of 1648 AD. For seventeen years, twenty thousand workmen are said to be employed on it daily, for their accommodation a small town, named after the deceased empress-'Mumtazabad, now known as Taj Ganj, was built adjacent to it. Amanat Khan Shirazi was the calligrapher of Taj Mahal, his name occurs at the end of an inscription on one of the gates of the Taj. Poet Ghyasuddin had designed the verses on the tombstone, while Ismail Khan Afridi of Turkey was the dome maker. Muhammad Hanif was the superintendent of Masons. The designer of Taj Mahal was Ustad.

Mahatma Gandhi Statue

Gandhi's residence

Traffic in Mumbia

Taj Mahal Hotel where we stayed in Mumbai and the sight of the November 2008 terrorist attack when an Islamist terrorist organization from Pakistan carried out 12 coordinated shootings lasting four days.