The Department of State has made progress since implementing its Diplomatic Readiness Initiative in 2002 to address employee and skill shortfalls, but the agency has not fully met its goals and mid-level vacancies remain a problem at many posts, the Government Accountability Office has said.
It said the agency has used incentives to attract more mid-level officers to critical locations — such as more money for staying longer at a post — but it has not evaluated the effectiveness of the incentives and continues to have difficulties attracting qualified applicants.
Junior officers often staff mid-level positions, and serious language gaps remain in foreign language capabilities despite numerous efforts, according to GAO-06-894.
It said the department has filled just two-thirds of its language-designated positions with language proficient staff, and that ratio is worse in some areas, such as in Sana’a, Yemen, where three out of five posts are staffed with language-proficient employees.
One problem could be that experience in numerous regions enhances an officer’s potential for promotion, making it more difficult develop and retain language proficient officers in certain regions.