GAO-01-970R Missing Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, DC 20548

July 20, 2001

The Honorable Martin T. Meehan

House of Representatives

Subject: The Peace Corps Failed to Properly Supervise Missing Volunteer and Lost

Track of Him

Dear Mr. Meehan:

This letter responds to your May 11, 2001, request for information surrounding the

disappearance of Walter J. Poirier, a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia, who

reportedly was last seen on or about February 22, 2001, in La Paz, the capital of

Bolivia. Specifically, you requested that we conduct an investigation to determine (1)

whether the Peace Corps failed to properly supervise Mr. Poirier’s activities and (2)

the actions taken by the Peace Corps and the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia when informed

that Mr. Poirier was missing. As you know, GAO is currently conducting a separate

overall review of the Peace Corps’ operations regarding its volunteers.

We conducted our investigation from June 1, 2001, through mid-July 2001 in

accordance with investigative standards established by the President’s Council on

Integrity and Efficiency. We interviewed Mr. Poirier’s parents; representatives of the

Peace Corps, including the Office of Inspector General (OIG); agents of the Federal

Bureau of Investigation (FBI); U.S. Embassy personnel in Bolivia; Peace Corps

volunteers; and Bolivian nationals who had contact with Mr. Poirier.

In summary, we determined that Mr. Poirier failed to follow certain Peace Corps

location and notification procedures.1

 Although the Peace Corps Associate Director

responsible for Mr. Poirier while he was in Bolivia knew that Mr. Poirier was not

following these procedures, he took no steps to correct the situation and, as a result,

lost track of Mr. Poirier. Furthermore, the Associate Director’s failure to adequately

monitor Mr. Poirier contributed to the difficulties encountered by the U.S. Embassy

in its efforts to locate Mr. Poirier. Once it was determined that Mr. Poirier was

missing, the U.S. Embassy, Peace Corps, multiple entities of the Bolivian National

Police, and fire/rescue teams in and around La Paz and throughout Bolivia conducted

an extensive search. As of the date of this letter, Mr. Poirier has not been found.

 1

 Prior to beginning assignments, all Peace Corps volunteers in Bolivia are to take an 11-week training

course that includes Peace Corps location and notification requirements for that country. We were

told that Mr. Poirier attended such a course.
Page 2 GAO-01-970R Missing Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia

The Peace Corps Failed to Properly Supervise Mr. Poirier and Lost Track of

Him

The Peace Corps Associate Director for Bolivia was directly responsible for

Mr. Poirier while he was in Bolivia, as well as over 40 other Peace Corps volunteers in

Bolivia. The Associate Director, who was responsible for helping the volunteers find

housing and set up meetings with their Bolivian project supervisors, was also

supposed to periodically check on the volunteers’ well-being.

Mr. Poirier was assigned to work on a tourism project in the Zongo Valley, a remote

area about 3 hours outside of La Paz. The Associate Director said that on

December 22, 2000, he drove Mr. Poirier to the Zongo Valley to conduct a site

inspection and to find a suitable place for him to live near the site. The Associate

Director located a house in the village of Camisique where Mr. Poirier was assigned a

room in which to live. The room was not available at the time, however, and

Mr. Poirier returned with the Associate Director to La Paz that same day. This was

the last day the Associate Director saw or spoke to Mr. Poirier. Mr. Poirier never

moved into the room in the village of Camisique and it was not until March 6, 2001,

that the Associate Director, after visiting the house in Camisique, learned that

Mr. Poirier did not live there. Instead, Mr. Poirier had rented a room in the village of

Zongo, further up the Zongo Valley from Camisique.

The Associate Director told us that Mr. Poirier failed to file a locator form, which is

required so that volunteers can be reached if an emergency occurs. The Associate

Director also said that Mr. Poirier failed to follow “out of site notification” policy,

which requires volunteers to notify their Associate Director, their secretary, or a

person they reside with when they are going to be away from their in-country place of

residence for more that 24 hours. The Associate Director added that he had problems

with Mr. Poirier’s apparent reluctance to move out of the apartment that a group of

volunteers had rented in La Paz to the room he thought Mr. Poirier had rented in the

village of Camisique. The Associate Director said he knew through discussions with

other volunteers that Mr. Poirier was still living in the La Paz apartment in January

2001, even though he should have been living in the village of Camisique at that time.

The Associate Director could not explain why he did not reach out to Mr. Poirier to

discuss his failure to follow established procedures, saying only that he was very

busy supervising other volunteers. The Associate Director said that it is the

responsibility of the Peace Corps’ office receptionist, who actually receives and files

the locator forms, to notify him if a volunteer fails to file the form. The Associate

Director believed that Mr. Poirier had not filed a locator form. However, the

receptionist told us that Mr. Poirier did file a locator form on January 31, 2001, which

indicated he was living at an apartment in La Paz. When we showed the Associate

Director Mr. Poirier’s locator form, he said that he had never seen it. The Associate

Director also said that it did not really matter that Mr. Poirier had filed a form

providing his La Paz address, because he did not submit a locator form with his

actual address in the Zongo Valley.2

 2

 During a search of Mr. Poirier’s residence in the village of Zongo, a completed locator form with that

address was found. The form had not been submitted to the Peace Corps’ Bolivian office.
Page 3 GAO-01-970R Missing Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia

Furthermore, the Associate Director told us that when he returned a March 2, 2001,

message from Mr. Poirier’s Bolivian project supervisor on March 5, he learned that

Mr. Poirier had missed a scheduled meeting with her on March 2. The Associate

Director told us that the project supervisor required that Mr. Poirier touch base with

her every 2 weeks. The Associate Director said he relayed this information to U.S.

Embassy personnel when it was determined that Mr. Poirier was missing.

Mr. Poirier’s Bolivian project supervisor told us that she informally agreed to meet

with Mr. Poirier on a regular basis to discuss the project. She added, however, that

there was never any agreement with Mr. Poirier or the Peace Corps that he meet with

her every 2 weeks. The project supervisor also said that on March 2, she telephoned

the Associate Director and left a message for him. On March 5, the Associate

Director returned her call, and she told him that she wanted to schedule a future

meeting with him and Mr. Poirier. She said she never told the Associate Director that

Mr. Poirier had missed a scheduled March 2 meeting.

We informed the U.S. Embassy and the FBI of the Associate Director’s and the

Bolivian project supervisor’s conflicting statements. The FBI subsequently

interviewed the Associate Director, and the FBI told us that he admitted that his

statement to us and U.S. Embassy personnel that Mr. Poirier had missed a scheduled

meeting with his Bolivian project supervisor had no basis in fact. The Associate

Director told the FBI that he said Mr. Poirier had missed a March 2 meeting to deflect

blame elsewhere because he felt responsible for not keeping a closer watch on

Mr. Poirier. According to the FBI, the best information available indicates that

Mr. Poirier was last seen at the project supervisor’s office in La Paz on or about

February 22, 2001.

The Associate Director told us that the last e-mail he received from Mr. Poirier was

on or about January 29, 2001, when he wrote that he was having a problem with the

financing for his project in the Zongo Valley. The Associate Director said the e-mail

concerned him and that on or about January 31, he asked his secretary to contact

Mr. Poirier by telephone. He said his secretary was unsuccessful in locating

Mr. Poirier. The Associate Director assumed that he had moved to his rented room in

the village of Camisique. The Associate Director also said that he became so busy

supervising the other volunteers that Mr. Poirier “dropped off my radar screen.” He

said he made no further attempt to contact Mr. Poirier.

Both the Country Director and Deputy Country Director for the Peace Corps in

Bolivia told us that the Associate Director was not keeping close enough contact with

Mr. Poirier. The Country Director said no one followed up on Mr. Poirier’s failure to

turn in his locator form. When we told the Country Director that Mr. Poirier had

turned in his locator form for the La Paz apartment on January 31, she said this was

the first she heard of it. The Country Director also said that if the Associate Director

had reason to believe that Mr. Poirier was not working and living in the Zongo Valley,

he should have done something about it. She also said that if the Associate Director

knew that Mr. Poirier was visiting La Paz or his project supervisor, he should have

also known that Mr. Poirier was not completing his out of site notification reports.

The Country Director said the Associate Director should have corrected this

situation.
Page 4 GAO-01-970R Missing Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia

Mr. Poirier’s failure to follow established procedures and the Peace Corps’ failure to

keep track of him led to early difficulties in focusing the search.

The U.S. Embassy Initiated an Extensive Search When Notified That

Mr. Poirier Was Missing

The Peace Corps was alerted that Mr. Poirier was missing on March 4, 2001, when

Mr. Poirier’s mother called the Deputy Country Director for the Peace Corps in

Bolivia and reported that she had not heard from her son in over a month. That same

day, the Deputy Country Director called the La Paz apartment where she believed

Mr. Poirier was staying. The other Peace Corps volunteers told the Deputy Country

Director that they had not seen Mr. Poirier since January 31. The Deputy Country

Director told the Associate Director on March 4 that she was not able to contact

Mr. Poirier.

The Country Director told us that even if Mr. Poirier’s mother had not called on

March 4, the Peace Corps would have initiated a search for him based on the fact that

Mr. Poirier had missed a March 2 meeting with his Bolivian project supervisor.

However, the Associate Director made the statement about the missed meeting,

which was a fabrication, after he learned of the disappearance of Mr. Poirier as a

result of the mother’s telephone call. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that the

Peace Corps would have initiated a search at that time.

After he was notified on March 4 that Mr. Poirier was missing, the Associate Director

attempted to locate Mr. Poirier on March 5, which included a telephone call and a trip

to the Zongo Valley. On or about March 5, the U.S. Embassy was notified that

Mr. Poirier was missing, and it immediately initiated and coordinated a search and

investigation in an attempt to locate Mr. Poirier. The coordinated effort used

available U.S. Embassy and Peace Corps personnel and various elements of the

Bolivian government.

After being told about Mr. Poirier’s disappearance on March 5, 2001, the Peace Corps’

OIG sent an investigator to La Paz on March 16. The investigator searched for

Mr. Poirier until March 31. On April 19, 2001, the FBI became involved after you,

Senator Edward Kennedy, and Senator John Kerry asked for FBI involvement in an

April 12, 2001, letter to Attorney General Ashcroft. The OIG investigator returned to

La Paz on April 20 and stayed until May 3. The FBI’s investigation took

approximately 2 weeks and included polygraphing several suspects developed by the

Bolivian National Police, and following leads that often led to remote parts of the

Bolivian countryside.

The Bolivian National Police, which searched morgues, hospitals, prisons, hotels, and

hostels in and around La Paz and throughout Bolivia, are still searching for

Mr. Poirier. A Bolivian fire/rescue team conducted extensive searches in waterways

and the Zongo Valley jungle. The U.S. Embassy and the Peace Corps have broadcast

information about Mr. Poirier’s disappearance throughout Bolivia in the print media,

newspapers, tabloids, television, and radio announcing that a substantial reward is

available. In addition, thousands of posters about Mr. Poirier’s disappearance have

been distributed throughout Bolivia.
Page 5 GAO-01-970R Missing Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia

- - - - -

We are sending copies of this letter to the Director and Inspector General of the

Peace Corps; the Secretary of State; the U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia; and interested

congressional committees. Copies of this letter will also be made available to others

on request. This letter will be available at www.gao.gov. If you have any questions,

please contact me at (202) 512-7455 or Assistant Director Patrick F. Sullivan at (202)

512-6722. Senior Special Agent John Cooney, Senior Attorney Barry Shillito, and

Senior Analyst Shelia James made significant contributions to this investigation and

letter.

Sincerely yours,

Robert H. Hast

Managing Director

Office of Special Investigations

(600897)