A recently released report from the Government Accountability Office says America’s overseas embassies still need to improve emergency evacuation procedures, The Washington Free Beacon reported Tuesday.
According to the report, five years after the deadly terrorist attack against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and despite established protocols for evacuations by the State Department, GAO determined that State still “has gaps in its crisis and evacuation preparedness for overseas posts.”
Each post must conduct nine different kinds of drills each fiscal year to prepare themselves for emergencies and evacuations. “State also has established processes for conducting post evacuations. Following an evacuation, post staff are required to transmit an after-action report identifying lessons learned to State headquarters,” the report said.
During fiscal years 2013 to 2016, around 25 percent of overseas posts prepared and submitted their mandated Emergency Action Plans (EAP) late. However, the completion rate did rise from 46 percent to 92 percent during that period.
GAO, nevertheless, discovered that, on average for those fiscal years, posts globally reported finishing “52 percent of required annual drills; posts rated high or critical in political violence or terrorism reported completing 44 percent of these drills.”
Additionally, almost 80 percent of posts reported finishing duck and cover drills. However, only 36 percent of posts reported completing evacuation training drills.
“Overall, less than 4 percent of posts reported completing all required drills during fiscal years 2013- 2016,” GAO declared. “In addition, although posts are required to transmit an after-action report listing lessons learned to State headquarters following evacuations, no such reports were submitted in fiscal years 2013–2016. Taken together, the gaps in State’s crisis and evacuation preparedness increase the risk that post staff are not sufficiently prepared to handle crisis and emergency situations.”
GAO, in their sensitive report, recommends, among other suggestions, to focus on accountability for completion and review of posts’ annual EAP updates and required drills, while improving the comprehension of EAPS.