AFSANET from the USAID Vice President

April 20 , 2007

Please send any questions or comments to AFSA/USAID Vice President Francisco Zamora at fzamora@usaid.gov.

AFSA is extremely concerned that employees who were identified for promotion into and within the Senior Foreign Service in a General Notice dated September 8, 2006 have still not been officially promoted. This was six months ago! In contrast, our State Department SFS colleagues were approved on December 23, 2006 and received their raises in their paychecks on January 28, 2007.

Why has it taken so long for USAID to process routine paperwork? This process should normally takes about three months but with USAID it has already been six months (and counting). Below is a timeline of what happened.

After the promotion boards made their decisions and the Inspector General cleared off, the USAID Human Resources Office prepared and sent the memorandum for approval of the list to the Administrator on November 15, 2006. The memorandum stayed in the Administrator's Office for three whole months instead of the normal one month! The list was not forwarded from USAID to the State Human Resources Office until about February 13 or 14, 2007 and State HR promptly forwarded it to the White House on February 15, 2007.

The Office of the President sent the list to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) for action on March 22, 2007. The list is waiting for action of the SFRC and, as of today, has not been approved.

AFSA tried repeatedly during this period to prod USAID HR to expedite the process at the Administrator's Office where the major delay occurred. Apart from lost wages for the employees involved, there are also negative consequences related to retirement benefits because annuities are based on the three highest salaries received. Another problem created by this delay is that because FS-01 officers technically have not been promoted, they will have to be reviewed by the Senior Threshold Board that reviewed them previously. These are complications
that still need to be resolved.

This list should have been approved promptly but it was apparently not a high priority from the Administrator's Office perspective. AFSA regrets the Agency's low importance that it has shown for its employees' welfare during a period where more and more is being asked of them. We believe there is no good reason for having deprived 20 loyal employees from receiving their just wages and hope that this will not occur in the future.

Please contact me at fzamora@usaid.gov if you have any questions.