WASHINGTON — An independent review panel has concluded that with American embassies and consulates facing an increasing threat of terrorist attacks, the State Department office overseeing diplomatic security is mired in the agency’s sprawling bureaucracy and must be elevated in importance.

A separate, broader inquiry last December into the attack on the United States mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans last Sept. 11 blamed the diplomatic security bureau and another State Department office as failing to coordinate and plan adequate security. That inquiry also found that several diplomatic security officials showed poor leadership, and recommended the creation of the latest panel to examine these and other department flaws.

Diplomatic security is one of 11 functions overseen by an under secretary for management, Patrick F. Kennedy, which include budget, personnel, procurement and medical services. Mr. Kennedy is one of six under secretaries, effectively the department’s third-ranking officials.

The panel’s new findings, which have not yet been publicly released, do not specifically address the department’s handling of the Benghazi attacks. But they implicitly criticize Mr. Kennedy’s office as not paying enough attention to the bureau that oversees security at 275 installations, and recommends “as a matter of urgency” establishing a new under secretary job to give security matters more clout within the department’s highest policy-making circles.