Correction: Management Advisory from the Inspector General to the Peace Corps Director

Correction:  The link I initially provided to this report does not work and when I tried it from the blog,  I got the message “Access denied.”  I was able to access other OIG reports from copying and pasting the URL.  However, this report will not allow that. The report can still be accessed by going to the Peace Corps official website.  Instructions are included further down.

The relationship between the Inspector General and the Director of the Peace Corps is not  always adversarial. The Inspector General may also provide information to the Director  designed to identify a problem and provide suggestions for resolution. Here is an example of such a Management Advisory dated November 21, 2014. In the discussion, the IG does, however, refer to reporting requirements the IG believes are the obligation of the Peace Corps staff.

To read the report with its specifics, as well to see how the OIG protects confidentiality of Volunteers, go to peace corps.gov

Scroll to the bottom of the Home page to the section labeled: Agency Links.

Scroll to  Office of the Inspector General; click on that title

On the OIG page, scroll down to OIG Reports; click on that title

Scroll to Management AdvisoryReports

Click on the second report down and titled: Management Advisory Report: Agency Policies Related to Volunteer Sexual Assault Allegations.

From the report:

“The purpose of this report is to bring to your attention concerns the Office of Inspector General OIG identified during an investigation of a Volunteer on Volunteer sexual assault reported to the Peace Corps by several third -party witness. The investigation disclosed that several staff members were confused about their reporting requirements, and that the Volunteers were reluctant to report sexual assaults to HCN because of perceived societal values held by that community. OIG understands that the Peace Corps is currently conducting a comprehensive review of the agency’s policies and procedures for responding to sexual assaults and the information may be useful to that endeavor.”

In my opinion, this Management Advisory also illustrates  the difficulty that Peace Corps Washington has, with multiple responsibilities and limited resources, in managing and training HCN and US Direct Hire staff in over sixty far-flung countries. This particular incident comes at a time when Peace Corps is still implementing all the provisions of the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act of 2011 and dealing with the consequences of budget reductions, due to sequestration.