Scathing Report Condemns INS Chief : Immigration: A former official paints a picture of an agency lacking direction and strong leadership.

The former head of the Western region of the Immigration and Naturalization Service has issued a final, scathing report that paints a picture of a national agency lacking direction and strong leadership from Washington.

The document, written by former Western region chief Ben Davidian and obtained by The Times, amounts to a condemnation of INS Commissioner Gene McNary, whose efforts to centralize operations in Washington and strip regional chiefs of authority led to Davidian’s departure in March to head the California Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento.

The report, culminating Davidian’s 18 months in the post, was addressed to McNary and distributed to top INS officials.

McNary was at a conference in Connecticut on Wednesday and unavailable for comment, according to agency spokesman Duke Austin.

But McNary has defended his reorganization plans as vital to the much-needed reform of a troubled agency that, according to a series of studies and audits, suffers from managerial and budget irregularities, inconsistent policy and enforcement strategies, and a general lack of accountability.

Under the reorganization, the four INS regions have been stripped of most budget, policy and operational decision-making powers. As of July 1, the nation’s four regional commissioners will be renamed “administrators,” reflecting their reduced responsibilities, and will be career INS employees, not political appointees like Davidian.

Many of Davidian’s criticisms--including a suggestion that the generally dilapidated state of U.S. Border Patrol vehicles represents a “national disgrace”--echo earlier findings by the General Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative arm, and others who have turned a critical eye on the vast INS bureaucracy.

In addition, Davidian’s report said:

* Telephone calls to Washington often go unanswered for days, hampering the ability of regional offices to perform such essential tasks as hiring, budget planning, responding to complaints of discrimination and disseminating information to the press and public.

* Training of supervisors is terrible at best.

* Guidelines are virtually nonexistent for the asylum program--a high-profile initiative more than a decade old in which hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals have sought U.S. residence, fearing political and religious persecution in their homelands.

* Centralization of hiring has made it “extremely difficult, sometimes impossible, to hire qualified and motivated personnel in a timely manner.”

* Reorganization efforts have had a detrimental effect on the region’s Anti-Smuggling Program, which resulted in more than 400 convictions of alien smugglers in the most recent fiscal year but has nonetheless been targeted for revamping.

Like others, Davidian also maintained that the Border Patrol, an INS uniformed enforcement body, is severely understaffed, particularly in the San Diego area, the favored entry zone for illegal aliens. He also cited a pressing need for more immigration detention space throughout the region--a necessity already acknowledged by McNary and others.

Much of Davidian’s criticism also was pointedly aimed at McNary, who was named to the national post in October, 1989, after serving for more than a decade as chief executive of St. Louis County, Mo.

“A solution” to the INS’ many woes, Davidian wrote, “is clear, direct and specific policy-making from Headquarters. . . .”

Davidian had been widely known as a foe of McNary’s centralization plans, and it was no secret that the two men did not get along. But Davidian had avoided direct public criticism of the nation’s top immigration policy-setter.

Davidian maintained that the agency’s four regional commissioners should continue to be political appointees--a position opposed by McNary, who has expressed concern about the likelihood of chiefs carving out “independent fiefdoms” within the bureaucracy.

“The perspective, experience and contacts brought to the job by a politically appointed regional commissioner are invaluable assets,” Davidian wrote, adding that unduly independent appointees can simply be fired if they do not adhere to Washington’s wishes.